Hema Upadhyay, Indian artist, Died at 43

  Artists

Hema Upadhyay was born in Hema Hirani in 1972, and died in December 2015.

He was an Indian artist based in Mumbai.

Hema was known for photography and sculptural installations.

She was active from 1998 until her death in 2015.

Born Hema Hirani in Baroda, she met her future husband and fellow artist Chintan Upadhyay in 1992.

The couple married in 1998, and settled in Mumbai.

They worked together in many exhibitions, before filing for a divorce in 2010.

They were officially divorced in 2014. Chintan then moved to Delhi; she lived in their flat on the Juhu-Tara road.

Hema Upadhyay went missing on Friday, December 11, 2015.

She called her domestic help Lalit Mandal around 6.30pm, informing him that she would have dinner outside.

When she did not return home that night, Mandal called her, only to find her mobile phone switched off.

Mandal then contacted her relatives and friends.

The next morning, Mandal registered a missing persons complaint.

On Sunday, December 13, 2015, the bodies of Hema Upadhyay and Bhambhani were found dumped in a stormwater drain opposite a crematorium in the Dahanukar Wadi area of Kandivali.

The bodies had been wrapped in transparent polyurethane sheets and stuffed in cardboard boxes.

They were naked except for undergarments. Hema hands were tied, and according to the police, she was probably smothered with a pillow.

Her lawyer’s face was mangled, and the injuries indicated a violent death from multiple blows with a blunt object.

According to the police, the bodies were not decomposed, indicating that the murders had taken place within the past couple of days.

Bhambhani’s car was not traceable.

Hema Upadhyay passed away at age 43 in December 2015.