Prime accused insists on Anuj Tiku's hand in father's murder

Vijay Palande, the alleged mastermind behind Delhi businessman Arun Tiku's murder, now claims that he is being falsely implicated by the victim's son Anuj Tiku, who is the real brain behind the meticulously planned crime. Palande, who caused the cops a major embarrassment when he managed to briefly escape after his arrest on Tuesday, told cops yesterday that he was being framed by Anuj and the two others accused in the case, Dhananjay Shinde and Manoj Gajkosh.

Property matters: Victim Arun Tiku; days before the murder, prime accused Palande had shipped one of his associates, Russian national Nivis Ligenza below), out of the country. It was Ligenza who had signed the leave and licence agreement for Tiku's apartmentu00a0

Cops however are quite certain that it was Palande who planned the entire operation with the ultimate aim of seizing the victim's Oshiwara apartment, and that he orchestrated the crime in a manner that would help him shift the police's suspicions to Nivis Ligenza, a German woman he had introduced to Anuj as his wife.

No paper trail
In order to derail the cops and avoid leaving behind a trail of documentary evidence, he had made sure that Ligenza signed the leave and licence agreement on behalf of his accomplices Shinde and Gajkosh, whom he had arranged to stay as paying guests in the apartment in the run-up to the usurpation.

Oshiwara police said that had Arun's body been successfully dumped, it would have been virtually impossible for them to nab Palande, as there is absolutely no mention of him in the leave and licence agreement, signed between Anuj and Ligenza. A few days before the murder, he shipped Ligenza out of the country. Cops are still trying to trace her. He hadn't even identified himself as Palande, but was known to Anuj as Karan Sood.
Meanwhile, the police have also conducted a panchnama at the residence of Simran, an associate of Palande.

The have been questioning Simran, and crosschecking her claims with her domestic help, to ensure that she is speaking the truth.
While Palande insists that he is being framed, his accomplice Shinde has confessed to the police that he was taking orders from Palande, and had been instructed to kill Arun with the help of Gajkosh.

"Palande has been changing his statements. We have also questioned Simran and her servant. Anuj is under our watch. We have been questioning him as well," said Dilip Rupwate, senior police inspector of Oshiwara police station.Cops confirmed that Anuj would continue to be a suspect till Palande's claims could be ruled out with certainty. u00a0