STAFF REPORTER Mumbai
As if cinema, cricket, crime and cops were not enough, the arrest of stockbroker Gautam Vora has added further glamour quotient to the Vijay Palande case.
Vora, a Page 3 regular, has been booked for hel
ping Palande while he was on the run after escaping from a police van on April 11.
Further, a senior crime branch official stated that Vijay Palande, Simran Sood, Karankumar Kakkad and Gautam Vora are linked to each other.
The Crime Branch Unit IX on Monday morning arrested Vora for allegedly helping Vijay Palande, the main accused in the recent double murders in Lokhandwala, in his bid to flee the country after escaping from the police dragnet.
Previously, Vora was questioned in 2010 for the suicide of his super fiancée Viveka Babji. Babajee had written in a suicide note, ‘U killed me Gautam Vora’. However, Vora was given a clean chit by the police in that case.
Vora, arrested on Monday under IPC sections 224, 225, 124 and 34, was produced in an Esplanade court that remanded him in Crime Branchs custody till April 27. When asked why Vora broke the law to help Palande, a senior Crime Branch official said that it was being probed.
On April 10, Vijay Palande was one of the three persons arrested for murdering Arunkumar Tikku ( 67), a Delhi based businessman, who was found murdered at his residence in Samartha Aangan society.
That evening, Palande escaped from the police car at Telli Galli, while being taken to Crime Branch Unit VIII in Andheri east.
Around 12.50 am on April 11, he was recaptured at Churchgate station.
During interrogation Palande revealed that Vora had tried to help him to flee to Thailand. ‘Soon after escaping from the car, Palande got in touch with Vora who met him in his Mercedes near Marine Lines station. They went to Colaba to buy three T- shirts for Palande. From there, they checked in hotel Godwin, adjacent to Colaba Causeway.
Palande had a shower in the hotel, changed his clothes and left for Churchgate station, where he was nabbed,’said a senior Crime Branch official.
In the court, Vora stated that he used his credit card to pay for the Tshirts and the hotel bills, which were worth Rs 4,800. However, Vora claimed that he knew Palande as Karan Sood and had no idea about his real name or his criminal background.
According to Crime Branch and local police, Vora and Simran Sood were in a relationship. Vora met Simran in either 2008 or 2009.
Simran introduced Palande to Vora, but she told the latter that they were cousins and introduced him as Karan Sood. Crime Branch is now trying to ascertain whether Vora knew Palande and about his criminal activities. They are also examining whether Vora had a hidden agenda in Kakads murder.
Policemen suspended PTI Adds: Meanwhile, two policemen have been suspended, one for being negligent as he was in the same vehicle from which Palande had escaped and the other for his close proximity to the gangster.
The two policemen in question are Inspector Sanjay Shinde and Constable Amol Deshpande.
Inspector Shinde had recently been transferred to the administration department of the Crime Branch. ACP Arvind conducted a departmental inquiry to ascertain whether Shinde ( whose brother is married to Palandes elder sister) had facilitated Palandes escape from police custody.
