Palande,Sood obtained passports using forged documents,say police

AT least two passports used by Vijay Palande and accomplice Seema Dusaj alias Simran Sood,accused of the murders of Arun Tikku and Karan Kakad last year,are bogus and obtained after submitting forged documents under the tatkal scheme,Mumbai Crime Branch has said.

AT least two passports used by Vijay Palande and accomplice Seema Dusaj alias Simran Sood,accused of the murders of Arun Tikku and Karan Kakad last year,are bogus and obtained after submitting forged documents under the tatkal scheme,Mumbai Crime Branch has said. The duo even forged a letter of recommendation purportedly from a senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,said a Crime Branch officer.

The Crime Branch secured custody of Palande,who was in judicial custody,and took him to the capital last week to conduct inquiries with the passport offices where the forged applications were used.

The passports were acquired in 2010. While one is the name of Palandes assumed identity Karan Sood,another is in the name of Dusajs assumed identity Simran Sood. Another passport,of co-accused Dhananajay Shinde,was also allegedly procured using forged documents.

Palande also used another passport made using forged documents in 2008 under his real name for trips to Thailand. He had provided Krishna Nagar in New Delhi as the address for this passport.

We will record the statements of officers from the New Delhi passport office, said an officer from Crime Branch Unit 9. Almost all these passports were procured through an agent,said the officer.

Palande and Dusaj allegedly used these passports for a lease agreement while moving into Oberoi Springs in Andheri,where they befriended Kakad,said an officer. We are submitting our findings in the passport forgery case against Palande, said the officer.

Anuj,a former banker,gave up corporate life to pursue acting. He moved to Mumbai in 2005 after his divorce,and landed bit-roles in movies. After his mothers death in 2008,he shifted from Bandra to the flat his father had bought in Lokhandwala. According to police,it was to usurp Anujs apartment in Samarth Aangan that Palande and his aides killed his father Arun Tikku on April 7 last year.

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Karan Kakad came to Mumbai from Delhi in 2009. An aspiring producer,he worked in a pre-production company as a co-ordinator. According to police,Palande befriended Kakad thinking that he came from a wealthy family. Kakad was murdered in March last year as Palande and other accused were allegedly eyeing his BMW and valuables,collectively valued at Rs 45.44 lakh.

Arrested for forged passport earlier

Palande had procured a forged passport under the name Kiran Kanubhai Rana. Rana was his assumed identity after he jumped parole from Kolhapur jail in Auust 2003. He made several trips to Thailand using this passport. The law caught up with him,and he was finally booked for forgery in November 2006 by D N Nagar Police. The Bombay High Court granted him bail 10 months later.

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