Serial killer Vijay Palande had eyes on victim's money since 2010

If police sources are to be believed Vijay Palande painstakingly planned Karan Kakkad's murder, with strategies being devised since 2010. The alleged serial killer is cooling his heels behind bars along with wife Seema Dusaj and two associates.

Vijay Palande left the country with his wife after murdering Karan Kakkad, using his alias, shopped with Kakkad's credit cards, and returned with the passport bearing the name Vijay Palande. File pic

In 2010, Palande made fake passports for himself and his spouse, using the aliases Karan Sood and Simran Sood. He then met Kakkad through ‘Simran'. He later moved into Oberoi Springs and formed an agreement providing bogus documents. Kakkad stayed in the same building. Investigations have revealed that after Palande killed Kakkad with the help of Dhananjay Shinde on March 5, 2012, they dumped the body in Chiplun and retraced their steps.u00a0

He then left the country with his wife, both using their aliases, shopped with Kakkad's credit cards, and returned with the passport bearing the name Vijay Palande. " The motive behind the whole plan was to create the illusion that Karan Sood had left the country to never return. He in fact came back as Palande. So if the name of Karan Sood cropped up in the investigations, he could never be found by cops," said a police official.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ambadas Pote from Crime Branch said, "Probe in the passport case is going on. We have found that he left our shores using the name Karan Sood and returned with the Vijay Palande passport. We are questioning him regarding the same."

Cops have found that the passport bearing the name Vijay Palande may also be phoney, as he acquired it using bogus documents. In 2006, Palande was arrested from Andheri (West) by DN Nagar police, where he was living with Seema. Cops discovered that Palande had a fake passport under the name of Kiran Kanubhai Rana, and was arrested in a case of cheating and forgery.