Escaped murder accused held
Crime branch officials on Wednesday re-arrested Vijay Palande, the main accused in the Arunkumar Tikku murder case, who had escaped from police custody in Andheri on Tuesday evening.
According to sources, the police officers, who had arrested Palande in Chiplun and were bringing him to Mumbai, were being lenient with him because he was helping them track down his accomplices.
Hence, they left him without handcuffs. However, Palande, who had made elaborate plans to flee to Thailand as it issues visas on arrival, ran out of luck when the person whom he called to hand over his passport and some money at the airport, turned out to be a police informer.
“Palande was being accompanied by four constables, a police inspector and an assistant inspector. After his arrest, Palande had helped the police by calling one of his accomplices Manoj Gajkosh to Karad, where the co-accused was arrested. At around 7.30 pm, when they were on Nagardas Road in Andheri (east), one of the accompanying officers got out of the vehicle to clear the traffic. Palande, who was seated in the corner, took advantage of the situation and pushed one of the constables and walked into the crowd,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.
According to the officer, while the policemen chased him, they also were worried that Gajkosh would escape. “Palande visited of one of his acquaintances and changed his clothes at his place, and then took a train to Churchgate. In the meantime, he called one of his friends and asked him to bring some money and his passport to the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, from where he was planning to flee to Thailand. However, the friend, who is also a police informer, alerted the police. Four units of the crime branch in civil clothes laid a trap near the station and arrested him,” he said.
Deven Bharti, additional commissioner of police, crime said that an internal inquiry will be conducted into the incident. “We have handed over Palande to the Oshiwara police that is investigating the murder,” he said.
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