Mumbai:
Amboli police officers may soon have some explaining to do. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX) yesterday ordered an enquiry against them to determine if they were negligent in their investigations of Karan Kakkad's murder case.
"We have initiated an enquiry to find out who is responsible for not initiating the investigations immediately after his brother Hanish and mother Rita approached the police to report that Karan was missing," said Pratap Dighavkar, DCP (zone IX). Karan's older brother Hanish claimed that when he had approached the Amboli police on March 9 to register a missing person's complaint for his brother, the cops had not taken him seriously.
Hanish told the police that in his phone conversations, Karan had spoken of Simrin Sud, a woman who stayed in his building. Karan had also spoken to him of a Karan Sood (the name he knew Palande by), with whom he had gone for a meeting to arrange finances for his production company. Hanish had even shown the police Karan's mobile phone, recovered from the Vaishali Express train in Delhi, which contained records of his conversation with Karan Sood.
"The police had summoned Simrin and asked her if she was acquainted with my brother. But Simrin denied having any knowledge of a Karan Kakkad, and the police officers let her go, believing her, " said Hanish." Had the police officers responded swiftly, they might have been able to reach Palande sooner and even saved Arun Tikku's life." An officer from the Crime Branch said that Amboli police had seized the phone from Hanish only yesterday.
After his sensational escape from a police van in Andheri on April 10, Vijay Palande enjoyed a few hours of freedom. Crime Branch sources have now revealed that he spent quite a part of this window negotiating a deal with a top cop, promising to offer crucial leads on underworld don Chhota Rajan, in exchange for his freedom.
Palande tried to enter into a pact with none other than the Additional Commissioner of Police Deven Bharti. According to sources, Palande used the Rajan card in his desperation to wriggle out of incarceration. He first held a telephonic conversation with Bharti, in which he pleaded with the top cop not to be killed in an encounter. Palande then agreed to meet Bharti at Churchgate station, on condition that he would not be killed on sight. At the rendezvous in Churchgate, Palande was at his modest best, claiming that he was hardly worth such a massive hunt, and instead offered to lead the Crime Branch officials to underworld don Chhota Rajan, in return for his freedom. Not falling for the bait, Bharti arrested Palande with the help of his other officers.