Producer’s killing: Bones found on Goa highway

Sceptical police send remains for DNA profiling.

Vijay Palande, the chief suspect in the kidnapping of aspiring producer Karan Kakkad, 26, led a team of crime branch officials to a ridge on the Kumbharli ghat, near Chiplun, along the Mumbai-Goa highway on Monday where they found human bones in the bushes.

A senior crime branch officer told HT on Monday that the spot where the remains were found was near a popular hotel, Hill View, along the Mumbai-Goa highway.

HT Image

“As per initial information, only the skull and some bones from the rib cage were found,” the officer said.

He said though Palande claimed that bones were Kakkad’s, the police said they would wait for the DNA report. “Palande is a hardened criminal and we are not taking his claims at face value. We will send the remains for DNA profiling for a confirmation,” the officer said.

He said Palande appeared to be a serial killer — in view of the two murders he had committed within a month’s time (the other being the murder of senior citizen Arun Tikku on April 7).

“It is also possible he could have murdered someone else and has identified that body [the remains] as that of Kakkad’s to mislead us,” the officer said.

As per Palande’s revelations, they (Palande and his accomplices Dhananjaya Shinde and Manoj Gajkosh) had gone to Kumbharli ghat and dumped the body on March 6-7.

“We are verifying these claims, too,” the officer said.