‘Missing’ actress, 44, ran away with 24-year-old boyfriend

S Ahmed Ali TNN

January 8,2014
Mumbai: Small-time actress Alka Punewar, who had “gone missing” from Thane over 10 days ago, was traced on Tuesday to Chennai, where she had eloped with a youth almost half her age after staging her abduction and possible death.
    Thane police have sent a team to bring Alka, 44, and 24-year-old Alok Paliwal, an MBA and software engineer, to Mumbai. It’s not clear if they will be charged.
    Alka, who has done bit roles in Hindi films like Bawander and Gadar, and a few TV serials, left home on December 27, purportedly for ashow in Uran. Two days later, her mangled car was found in a valley in Khopoli near the Mumbai-Pune expressway.
    The city crime branch cracked the case when Sanjiv Kumar Sonkar, a close friend of Alka whom they had detained on suspicion after going through call records, confessed. Alka and his friend Paliwal were in a relationship for a year and were desperate to get married. Alka’s husband Sanjay was proving to be a hurdle, so they hatched the plot to stage an abductioncum-murder mystery.
    After Alka’s cell phone was found near the wreckage, sleuths stumbled on a number that had belonged to Paliwal. Call records of that number led to Sonkar as well as Paliwal and Alka’s frequent conversations. The Thane police will decide after speaking to the duo whether they and Sonkar should be booked for kidnapping, misleading the police and criminal conspiracy. Alka’s phone helped unravel plot, cops undecided on action against her, beau
    The Alka Punewar case has been solved. Besides a missing person case, on Monday, a kidnapping and robbery case had been registered against unknown persons. “We are happy Alka is alive. Our team is questioning Alka and Alok in Chennai to find the truth. We will see what can be done in this case,” said Thane police commissioner K P Raghuvanshi.
    The city crime branch, which was running a probe parallel to that of the Kopri police, found that on December 27, Alka’s husband drove her to Anand theatre near Thane station in a secondhand Maruti 800 they had bought a few days ago . He left as Alka told him her driver would take her to Uran for a show. Alka met up with Paliwal and 25-year-old Sonkar there later and drove to Sonkar’s flat at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai. They partied till late in the night before driving to Crawford Market, where Alka took a bus to Chennai and Paliwal and Sonkar drove to the expressway.
    They had a flat tyre at Palaspe phata before dawn and Paliwal used the break to send an SMS from Alka’s cell phone to her husband, asking him to send the resume of their son Pratik to an email address. They then drove to Khopoli and pushed the car into a 900-ft valley along with Alka’s cell phone. “Paliwal and Sonkar waved to truck drivers, informing them an accident had taken place. They vanished and the drivers informed the traffic police about the car,” said inspector Nandkumar Gopale of the crime branch’s property cell. Sonkar returned home, Paliwal united with Alka in Chennai.
    Alka’s phone was recovered and led to the unravelling of the plot. She had sent a text recently by mistake to Paliwal’s cell number, which had been suspended in July. “We got Paliwal’s number which is registered in Andhra Pradesh. We sought the call record of that number and found a number which made frequent calls to that number and both numbers were seen shuttling between Mumbai and Chennai. On further surfing we got another number, that of Sonkar’s,’’ said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police.
    Police picked up Sonkar, who cracked under interrogation. “We have handed over Sonkar to Thane police as the Kopri police is probing the missing and kidnapping case,” said Niket Kaushik, additional commissioner of police.
    When TOI informed Alka’s husband Sanjay Punewar of the developments on Tuesday afternoon, he broke down. “I had been searching for her like mad, but she has ruined my life as well as that of my children. I don’t want to be associated with her any more,” Sanjay said.
    Sonkar said Alka sometimes lied to her husband that she was going for a shoot to Bangkok when in reality she would rendezvous with Paliwal in Bangalore or Chennai. Alka had divorced her first husband and fallen in love with Punewar, a retired IAF officer.
LOVE, MARRIAGE & DHOKA CAST ALKA SANJAY PUNEWAR (44) | Primarily a stage actor, she’s worked in Marathi and Hindi movies (Gadar, Bawander and Tujse Lagi Lagan) and TV serials. She divorced her 1st hubby, with whom she has a 28-year-old daughter
Alok Paliwal (24) | An MBA and software engineer. Originally from Bangalore, he works with a multinational company in Chennai. Met Alka at a party and fell in love. Introduced Alka as Nikita to his friends and planned to marry her Sanjiv Kumar Sonkar (25) | Resident of
    Kharghar and Alok’s childhood friend.
    Alok drew Sonkar, who works in the maintenance department of a mobile service provider, into the plot. Sonkar showed Alok the Khopoli valley where they disposed of Alka’s car to make it look like an accident. Sonkar was certain the car would be gutted, making it seem like she had died
Sanjay Punewar (46) | After divorce, Alka fell in love with the ex-air force officer and married him. They have 19-year-old twin sons. He had been running helter-skelter to find Alka
HOW THE PLOT UNRAVELLED Dec 27 | Alka’s hubby drives her to Thane station and leaves as her driver would take her further. She meets Paliwal, Sonkar and goes to Khargar. Later, she leaves for Chennai, they go to Khopoli (see map) Dec 28 | In the wee hours, Punewar gets text from Alka’s cell (sent by Paliwal).A person identifying himself as Prashant calls up the family landline and asks if Alka has reached home. Punewar calls Alka, but her phone goes unanswered. Paliwal, Sonkar dispose of car in Khopoli and leave Dec 29 | Khopoli police call Alka’s brother Santosh Mishra, who is in Nagpur, and tell him their car has met with an accident Dec 30-31 | Punewar, Mishra and a few friends go to Khopoli, reach car. There’s no trace of Alka, but her phone is found 100m away
Jan 1-4 | Cops go through the call records of the phone and begin digging out the call details. They find Paliwal’s number and as well as that of Sonkar
Jan 5-6 | They call in Sonkar, who spills the beans after interrogation
Jan 7 | Cops speak to Alka
HAVE ALKA & PALIWAL BROKEN ANY LAWS? Thane cops are waiting to speak to both before deciding on their course of action Both are adults and nobody has been killed or injured in the case Sources said Alka, Paliwal, Sonkar could be held for misleading the police, criminal conspiracy and in the kidnapping & robbery case filed by Alka’s husband

COPS WHO CRACKED THE CASE Inspector Nandkumar Gopale, APIs Nitin Patil, Dilip Phoolpagare, Laxmikant Salunke and Dinkar Bhosle of the property cell of Mumbai crime branch

Alka Punewar’s mangled car that was found in a deep valley at Khopoli. Her phone was recovered 100m away