police reopens Viveka Babajee's sucide case

Viveka Babajee (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This angle came up for consideration when Crime Branch officers who are investigating Arun Kumar Tikku’s April 7 murder stumbled upon a suicide note written in his son Anuj Tikku’s handwriting, stashed away in one of Palande’s bank vaults. Investigations revealed that Anuj had no idea of having written the note and that Palande had made him write it when he was under the influence of alcohol. Palande allegedly intended to use the note after killing Anuj, to pass off the murder as a suicide and let himself off the hook. Cops are now trying to determine if the same modus operandi was used in Babajee’s death.

Though Anuj has no recollection of writing the note, it clearly bears a message in his handwriting, saying that he is frustrated with his life. “We suspect that Palande wanted to kill Anuj and show the suicide note to prove that he was not responsible for the death,” said a police officer. On June 25, 2010 Babajee was found hanging from the fan in her Khar residence. The cops had found a diary, which had one last entry, saying, “You killed me, Gautam Vora.” After questioning her close friends Gautam Vora, Karthik Jobanputra and Rohit Jugaraj, Khar cops closed the case, recording it as suicide.

Twist in the plot But after it was revealed that Vora had funded Palande’s hotel stay when the latter was on the run from the law, the police have learnt that Babajee also knew Palande. “From the family’s version, we got the impression that the handwriting in the diary was Babajee’s, but with these new facts being revealed about Palande, we can’t rule out the possibility that he was involved and the suicide was staged. But then why did he write Vora’s name in the suicide note? We have also sent the diary to the forensic laboratory and are waiting for the report,” said a police officer from Khar.

“We are reviewing the case, and whatever new developments crop up, they will be part of our investigations,” said Pratap Dighavkar, deputy commissioner of police, Zone IX.