Tikku killer accused of other murders along with wife

Mumbai, April 18 (IANS) The murder case of Delhi businessman and senior citizen Arun Kumar Tikku took a curious turn with key suspect, Vijay Palande, being accused by police of also killing aspiring film producer Karan Kakkar, whose head and body parts were found on Monday.

Senior police officials Wednesday said that Palande is married to small-time actress Simran Sood, who has also been arrested for the murder of Kakkar after she was called for questioning. However, police are yet to verify her role in the murder of Tikku.

"Palande was married to Sood since 14 years, and since then he used her to honeytrap wealthy victims," a senior crime branch official told reporters here.

"Kakkar was killed March 5 at his residence in suburban Andheri in northwest Mumbai. Palande, along with Sood may have killed others, using the same modus operandi," he added.

Police are now tracing all contacts and conversations from the couple's cell phones and crosschecking with police stations across the country for mitigating evidences.

"We suspect that the couple might have been involved in other murders as well. So we will now trace all the names in their mobile contact list and determine if any of them have gone missing anywhere in the country," said Inspector S. Shende of Amboli police station, where Kakkar's murder case has been registered.

On Monday night, a team of Mumbai Police officials recovered Kakkar's severed head and parts of his torso from Chiplun in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, where Palande had dumped his body.

On April 10, Mumbai Police had arrested three people in connection with the murder of senior citizen Arun Kumar Tikku, father of small-time actor Anuj Tikku.

Apart from Palande, Dhananjay Shinde and Manoj Gajkosh, staying in Tikku's flat as tenants were also arrested for the murder.