Mumbai:
In what could be his most shocking revelation yet, Vijay Palande, accused in the murder cases of Arun Tikku and Karan Kakkad, has confessed to the Crime Branch that Gautam Vora featured prominently on his hitlist, and that he planned to murder the stockbroker after eliminating actor Anuj Tikku.
He had been slowly but certainly laying the trap for Vora over the last six years, ever since he was introduced to the wealthy young man in 2005.
True to his modus operandi of establishing close ties with the rich and flamboyant before bumping them off and usurping their assets, he had planned all along to get up close and personal with Vora, so that he could eventually grab the latter's properties.
To achieve this envisioned end, he had the perfect weapon at his disposal -his attractive accomplice Simrin Sud. Knowing of Vora's philandering ways, he asked Simrin to get close to him, and initiate a romantic liaison.
He even tried to effect marriage between Vora and Sud, knowing that Simrin would then become the nominee for his assets, particularly his Malabar Hill home.
After the planned marriage, Palande had planned to bump off Vora.
However, standing as the sole obstacle to his carefully crafted plan was Vora's mother, who wasn't at all in favour of the match.
According to Palande, Vora, oblivious to Simrin's true intentions, had tried his best to convince his mother, who refused to budge from her stand.
Palande further revealed that once he had eliminated Karan Kakkad and Arun Tikku, he had intended to kill Arun's son Anuj. His fourth and perhaps final victim would have been Vora.
After striking him down, Palande planned to acquire Vora's plot in the upscale Malabar Hill.
His means of disposal would have remained the same. Palande had planned to chop Anuj and Vora's dead bodies in parts, before dumping them in Chiplun, where his earlier victim Kakkad's body had been discarded as well.
He had planned to murder Anuj after luring him out of the country on the pretext of a film shoot.