<p>Stock market broker and party-animal Gautam Vora was taken into custody by Mumbai police for allegedly helping history-sheeter Vijay Palande, a key accused in the murder of Delhi-based businessman Arun Kumar Tikku, after he went on a lam from police custody.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Palande was first picked up as a suspect for the murder and finally tracked down and arrested from Churchgate station, on April 11, after he was on the run for over 24 hours.<br /><br />Investigating officials have already taken into custody over four persons, including a small-time actress and a hooker Simran Sood, who police describe as Palande’s girl friend.<br /> The entire Palande gang, apart from being charged for committing murder of 62-year-old Tikku, now also faces charges of murdering another Delhi-based wannabe film producer Karan Kakkad.<br /><br />Vora, a familiar face in party-circuits adorning newspapers as “socialite gatherings”, was questioned by the police after model Viveka Babajee committed suicide in 2010. Babajee’s parents had charged Vora of mentally torturing the model.<br /><br />However, this time Vora has been picked up for allegedly helping Palande in hiding from the police after he walked out from a pick-up van in the north-west suburb Andheri. According to police, Palande and his gang used Simran as a honey-trap to lure potential “victims”, and then “target” by promising them an entry into film world.<br /><br />Police feel that Vora, initially may have been a target of Palande gang, but later on the two developed “relationship”. It is precisely because of his relationship with Simran that Vora had extended help to Palande who reportedly was a known police informer and fixer to various high-profile police officers who masqueraded as ‘encounter specialists’. <br />Palande’s own brother-in-law, a crime branch officer, is also being investigated in the ongoing inquiries.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Stock market broker and party-animal Gautam Vora was taken into custody by Mumbai police for allegedly helping history-sheeter Vijay Palande, a key accused in the murder of Delhi-based businessman Arun Kumar Tikku, after he went on a lam from police custody.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Palande was first picked up as a suspect for the murder and finally tracked down and arrested from Churchgate station, on April 11, after he was on the run for over 24 hours.<br /><br />Investigating officials have already taken into custody over four persons, including a small-time actress and a hooker Simran Sood, who police describe as Palande’s girl friend.<br /> The entire Palande gang, apart from being charged for committing murder of 62-year-old Tikku, now also faces charges of murdering another Delhi-based wannabe film producer Karan Kakkad.<br /><br />Vora, a familiar face in party-circuits adorning newspapers as “socialite gatherings”, was questioned by the police after model Viveka Babajee committed suicide in 2010. Babajee’s parents had charged Vora of mentally torturing the model.<br /><br />However, this time Vora has been picked up for allegedly helping Palande in hiding from the police after he walked out from a pick-up van in the north-west suburb Andheri. According to police, Palande and his gang used Simran as a honey-trap to lure potential “victims”, and then “target” by promising them an entry into film world.<br /><br />Police feel that Vora, initially may have been a target of Palande gang, but later on the two developed “relationship”. It is precisely because of his relationship with Simran that Vora had extended help to Palande who reportedly was a known police informer and fixer to various high-profile police officers who masqueraded as ‘encounter specialists’. <br />Palande’s own brother-in-law, a crime branch officer, is also being investigated in the ongoing inquiries.<br /><br /></p>
