Tikku murder case: Stock analyst Gautam Vora arrested

Stock analyst Gautam Vora has been arrested for allegedly helping Vijay Palande, a key accused in the murder of Delhi-based businessman Arun Kumar Tikku, after his escape from police custody.

Palande was nabbed from near Churchgate station in South Mumbai in the early hours of April 11, soon after he gave a slip to the police after being arrested on the charges of murdering the 62-year-old businessman, said the police on Monday.

"Vora had helped Palande to go into hiding soon after he escaped from police custody. Palande had been arrested on April 10. In the evening, he jumped off the police vehicle in suburban Andheri and subsequently approached Vora," said a police officer.

Palande was about to leave for the Mumbai International Airport to fly to Thailand, where visa on arrival facility is available, after his escape.

Palande, Dhananjay Shinde and Manoj Gajkosh, all former associates of gangster Santosh Shetty, were nabbed in connection with the murder of Tikku last week.

Tikku was found murdered in the bathroom of his first floor three-bedroom apartment in Lokhandwala Complex on April 7. His body bore six to eight stab wounds on the abdomen and a computer chord was tied around his neck.

Palande, who introduced himself as Karan Sood, had first met the victim's actor-son Anuj Tikku through starlet Simran Sood. Palande had told Anuj that Sood was his sister.

Preliminary probe had suggested that the trio had conspired to usurp the three flats of the deceased in a high-rise building in the posh Lokhandwala area, police said.