Palande got passport in Delhi by giving false address

Police today claimed that Vijay Palande, gangster and key-accused in sensational murder cases, had obtained a passport from Delhi by giving false address in the national capital.

"During the probe into the two sensational murder cases (the killings of Arunkumar Tikku and Karankumar Kakkad), it has emerged that Palande had obtained a passport by giving false address in Krishnanagar in Delhi in 2008," said a police officer.

Investigators were trying to get all the documents Palande had submitted at the passport office in Delhi, the officer said. 62-year-old Arun Kumar Tikku from Delhi was found murdered in the bathroom of his first floor 3-bedroom apartment in Lokhandwala Complex here on April 7.

His body bore six to eight stab wounds on the abdomen and a computer chord was also tied around his neck. Palande, Dhananjay Shinde and Manoj Gajkosh, all former associates of gangster Santosh Shetty, were nabbed on April 10 in connection with the murder.

Palande, who introduced himself as Karan Sood, had first met the victim's actor-son Anuj through starlet Simran Sood. Palande had told Anuj that Sood was his sister, though she was his wife.

Palande hails from Chiplun in Ratnagiri district of the state. Preliminary probe had suggested that the trio had conspired to take hold of the three flats of the deceased in a high-rise building in the posh Lokhandwala area, police said.

Palande and his associates had, on March 5, abducted a wannabe film producer Karankumar Kakkad (28), a resident of Delhi, who wanted to try his luck in the film industry.

Initially, a missing person's case was registered in Amboli police station here following a complaint by Kakkad's brother Aneesh. However, it was later changed to an abduction case, after the arrest of Sood on April 12. As the probe progressed, the gangsters' role surfaced in the crime.