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Dec 14 2015

Installation Artist Hema Upadhyay Killed in Mumbai

by Sylvia Tsai

Artist Hema Upadhyay was found murdered on December 12, 2015, in Mumbai. Photo sourced from The Indian Express

On the evening of Saturday, December 12, Mumbai-based installation artist Hema Upadhyay was found brutally murdered, along with her lawyer Harish Bhambhani, in the northern suburb of Kandivali. Their bodies were discovered in two large cardboard cartons disposed in a drain near a cemetery.

Local police called in Hema’s ex-husband Chintan Upadhyay in for questioning on Sunday and, according to The Indian Express, the Mumbai police are also trying to locate artist Rajbhar who had asked to meet Hema on Friday. Currently, the owner of the warehouse storage where Hema kept her works is the primary suspect

The 43-year-old artist recently returned from Dubai where she opened, in November, a group show at the newly relocated 1×1 Gallery in Alserkal Avenue, that included peers such as Mithu Sen, Bharti Kher, Zarina Hashmi and Sudarshan Shetty.