Vijay Palande: From waiting tables to the good life

Palande,41,hails from Chiplun,a town in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district in the Konkan region. His father retired from the Army and Palande apparently harboured plans of cracking the civil services examination. He moved to Mumbai in the early ’90s and began working as a waiter in restaurants in the western suburbs. Struck by the glamour of the city,Palande coveted the luxuries he saw flaunted around him,police say.

With time,he became friendly with aspiring actresses and struggling models living in areas such as Lokhandwala,Versova,Oshiwara and Yari Road,who were desperate for a break that could kick-start their careers. Police say he soon began using these women to ingratiate himself with wealthy men,and drew up meticulous plans to kill them and take over their money or property. He married one such model,Simran Sood,whose charms he allegedly used to bait victims.

The first of Palande’s alleged victims were Anup Das and his father Swaraj,who were murdered in 1998. After Palande was arrested for the double murders the same year,he was convicted in December 2002 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In August 2003,Palande fled to Thailand after he was released on parole from Kolhapur jail. There he allegedly underwent cosmetic surgery and assumed the name Kiran Rana.

In November 2006,he was arrested by the DN Nagar police station in Mumbai for using a forged passport under the name Kiran Kanubhai Rana on trips outside the country. Just 10 months later,when Palande applied for bail,it was granted by the Bombay High Court with the police failing to inform the court that he had been convicted for a double murder and had jumped parole.

Palande also forged ties with the underworld before he was arrested a third time earlier this month. Sometime in 2010,Palande went to Bangkok and is said to have worked as an aide of gangster Santosh Shetty,before returning to Mumbai and allegedly killing Tikku and Kakad. The police are still probing Palande’s activities during his association with Shetty.

The first victims

It was while he was working as a steward in Copper Chimney restaurant in upmarket Juhu in 1998 that Palande came into contact with Anup Das,who was a leader of an Air India employees’ union. Das had secured land from the government and developed two towers named Syklark Building on the Juhu-Versova Link Road,which was meant to house Air India employees.

According to the police,Palande befriended Das and introduced him to an aspiring model who worked on a catamaran plying between Mumbai and Goa. In return for the favour,Das allowed Palande to stay in an apartment he owned at Mittal Tower near Juhu beach. Das married the model after some time. However,around three months after the marriage,the model mysteriously disappeared. Suspecting that Das was responsible for her death,the model’s brother arrived in Mumbai from Bihar to confront him.

Das was subsequently arrested for paying a contract to a criminal in Mumbai’s Malad area to kill the brother. While Das was in jail,Palande visited him regularly and befriended an Iranian named Imad who stayed in the same barrack as Das. Palande allegedly went on to hatch a plot with Imad to murder Das and split his property,once the two prisoners were released on bail.

After getting Das drunk and taking him to Khandala,a hill station a few hours’ drive from the city,Palande and Imad allegedly killed him. When Das’s father Swaraj later contacted Palande on his son’s disappearance,he was told that his son had landed in trouble with the police and had asked him to reach Khandala with some money. Swaraj left for Khandala with Palande and Imad,and was murdered there. When he failed to return home after a few days,Swaraj’s wife lodged a police complaint.

Palande was eventually arrested by in 1998 for the double murders after he had sent two women to a bank in Borivali to withdraw Rs.5.1 lakh from Anup Das’s account.

The aspiring actor

Anuj Tikku,a 38-year-old former banker who studied engineering in Manchester and got an MBA degree from IMT Ghaziabad,gave up a corporate life and chose to pursue acting as a career. He moved to Mumbai in 2005 following a divorce,and landed bit roles in movies such as Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and No One Killed Jessica. After his mother’s death in 2008,he shifted from Bandra to a flat his father had bought for him in Lokhandwala.

According to the police,Anuj came into contact with Simran Sood some years ago. Sood,in turn,introduced Palande to him as her brother Karan Sood. The three began meeting each other regularly,and Anuj began to consider Palande a close friend. He called Palande by the nickname ‘KK’ and began trusting him blindly,say investigators. Police sources say Palande also provided drugs to Anuj with the aim of dulling the latter’s wits,so that he would remain unaware of the fate he had in mind for him.

According to the police,it was in order to clear the way to usurp Anuj’s sprawling apartment in Samarth Aangan building in Lokhandwala that his father Arun Tikku was murdered by Palande and his associates on April 7. Palande learnt that Arun Tikku had willed property worth around Rs 50 crore in Mumbai,Delhi and Gurgaon to his son,said the police.

Palande’s plan,according to the police,was to hoodwink Anuj and get him to sign over all these properties before murdering him.

The aspiring producer

Karan Kakad,originally from Delhi,set out for Mumbai in 2009 with dreams of making it big in the movie industry. An aspiring producer,he worked in a pre-production company as a co-ordinator. Kakad was staying in a rented apartment at Oberoi Springs Tower in Andheri,where Simran Sood too stayed. It was she who introduced Kakad and Palande,again as her brother Karan Sood,some years ago. According to the police,Palande befriended Kakad thinking that he came from a wealthy family.

Police officers have alleged that Kakad used to provide female escorts to clients,and was in touch with cricket bookies. Kakad’s family,however,has vehemently denied his alleged involvement in such activities. Police sources said that Kakad lost around Rs 42 lakh on bets placed during IPL matches. Despite these losses,Kakad still managed to buy a BMW by borrowing money from his brother,which made him the target of Palande’s alleged designs.

Before he went missing on March 6,Kakad called his elder brother Hanish — an estate agent in Delhi — and told him that he was on his way to meet a politician with someone called Karan Sood,who Kakad said was his neighbour Simran’s brother. Kakad told Hanish that the politician was a contact of this Karan Sood and would help him get Rs 2.50 crore to start his own production company.

Kakad’s body was found earlier this month. Palande gained a BMW,gold ornaments,an iPod,a mobile phone and a laptop,collectively valued at Rs 45.44 lakh,from Kakad’s death; the Crime Branch is still unclear whether there was a deeper motive for the murder.