Mumbai: A day after a charge sheet was filed against gangster Vijay Palande in the murder case of Arun Kumar Tikku, a Delhi-based businessman, the Crime Branch of Mumbai police on Saturday charge sheeted him for escaping from police custody.
Palande was arrested on April 10 for his alleged role in Tikku murder case. However, during the police custody, he had managed to escape, even though he had been arrested again later.
"We filed a 160-page charge sheet in the court with statements of 28 witnesses. Two witnesses have also identified accused Gautam Vora," a police source said.
Vora was also arrested in the case for allegedly shielding Palande and harbouring him when he escaped from the custody. Earlier, Vora had been granted anticipatory bail in the suicide case of model and actress Viveka Babajee.
Meanwhile, the court directed the police to clarify who (between the two) had been charged under which section. The court raised the query after the police booked Vora and Palande under section 224 (Resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) and 225 (Resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person) of the IPC.
Yesterday, police had filed a charge sheet against the Palande and three others including Dhananjay Shinde, Manoj Gajkosh and model Simran Sood in Tikku murder case.
According to the police theory, Palande had become friends with Anuj, son of Arun Kumar Tikku, a couple of years ago. He had plans to take over the three flats- clubbed into one. The flats are in Anuj`s name.
However, he saw the plan failing when Arun flew down to Mumbai from Delhi and threw out Dananjay and Manoj, who Palande had kept in the flat after making Anuj sign a two-year leave and licence agreement with a German woman.
On the fateful day, while Palande took Anuj to Goa in his Mercedes Benz, Manoj and Dhananjay murdered Arun. During interrogation, Palande also confessed that he had killed Karan Kakkad. Police later recovered the decomposed body parts of Kakkad from the forests at Kumbharli Ghat in Chiplun in Ratnagiri district.
PTI
