‘Kakad’s torso,blood samples found’

“A torso has been recovered from the same area in Kumbharli Ghat from where some of Kakad’s remains were found earlier. We believe this is Kakad’s torso,and it is being sent to the forensic sciences laboratory for analysis,” said a senior Crime Branch officer,who did not wish to be named.

A day after the police had first claimed that they had found parts of Kakad’s body,his family said the skull did not seem to be his.

“We have now found blood samples from the crime scene,which we can use to confirm that the remains are Kakad’s. Coagulated blood was found in a small cavity behind a drain in the bathroom of his rented apartment,” said the officer.

Kakad,who was originally from Delhi and was staying in Andheri (West),had been missing since March 6 along with his BMW car,gold ornaments,iPod,mobile phone and laptop,collectively valued at Rs 45.44 lakh. The Crime Branch arrested four accused — Vijay Palande,Dhananjay Shinde,Manoj Gajkosh and Simran Sood — in connection with his murder.

According to the police,Kakad was killed in his apartment the day he went missing. The killers allegedly chopped his body into pieces and drove down to the spot from where his remains were eventually recovered.

Vora moves sessions court to seek bail

After his bail application was rejected by a metropolitan magistrate court on Saturday,stock market analyst Gautam Vora moved the sessions court for bail on Monday.

Vora was arrested last week for helping Vijay Palande — the main accused in Arun Tikku and Karan Kakad murders — during the latter’s brief escape from police custody on April 10. Vora allegedly booked a room for Palande in a hotel in South Mumbai’s Colaba area and also used his credit card to buy new clothes for him. According to the police,Vora was also making arrangements for Palande to escape to Bangkok.

In his bail application filed through his lawyer Rajendra Sorankar,Vora claimed he was unaware of Palande’s real identity. “I was introduced to Palande though Simran Sood (also arrested in the Tikku and Kakad murder cases) as Karan Sood. Simran had claimed he was her brother and I believed her,” he stated in the bail application.

The bail application will come up for hearing on May 3.