‘Identification parade will make case against Palande stronger’

Palande, charged with the murder of senior citizen Arun Tikku, will also be booked in fake passport case.

The city crime branch will be conducting an identification parade for murder accused Vijay Palande soon, to strengthen the case against him. Senior crime branch officials said they would be booking Palande in a fake passport case after the parade is completed.

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Palande, an accused in the murders of small-time producer Karan Kakkad and 62-year-old Arun Tikku, is currently lodged in judicial custody in Arthur road jail.

“We have many witnesses who have seen Palande at various times before and after the crimes. The watchman at Oberoi Springs complex, where Tikku was murdered, the complainant in the senior citizen’s murder case and a few more in the Kakkad murder case are our prime witnesses. The identification parade will be conducted soon to strengthen the evidence in these cases,” a crime branch source said.

Palande and Simran Sood had obtained passports from the Delhi passport office by giving false names and addresses. The crime branch claims that gangster Santosh Shetty got a passport from the same Delhi agent.

Palande had in 2006 been arrested from his Andheri (West) apartment, where he was living with Sood. Palande had a forged passport under the name of ‘Kiran Kanubhai Rana’, following which a cheating and forgery case was registered against him.