Mumbai: In the 14-year-old murder case of Pakistani starlet Laila Khan, the sessions court on Thursday held her step-father Parvez Tak guilty. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence next week Tuesday.
Laila, her four siblings and mother Shelina were killed on February 9, 2011, by Tak allegedly aided by his house-help Shakir. Their bodies, sandwiched in mattresses and pillows, were found buried in the backyard of a derelict farmhouse in Igatpuri.
Tak was Shelina’s third husband and hit her on her head with an iron rod after an argument over her proximity to her second husband, Asif Shaikh, a local builder, whom she was planning to make a caretaker for her property. Her son Imran, daughter Azmina and niece Aafreen came to her help but were fatally clubbed with iron rods and stabbed. Laila and Imran’s twin Zara were in Mira Road at that time, closing a land deal. Tak knew she would be carrying jewellery and close to Rs2 crore back to the farmhouse.
Tak and Shakir went to Mira Road to pick them up. On the way back, they stopped near Ghodbunder Road and clubbed them to death. The bodies were then brought back and wrapped in mattresses and buried with the others. After hours of reportedly digging and burying the bodies in a pit, the duo set the farmhouse on fire. At the time of the murders, Laila was 31 years old, her mother 51, elder sister 32, twin siblings Zara and Imran were 25.
Khan’s father and Shelina’s first husband Nadir Patel had filed a complaint at the Oshiwara police station stating that the family had gone missing, blaming Tak and Shaikh. Police had detained Shaikh in Bengaluru, but he was later let off.
Tak was arrested as he was last seen with the family at Igatpuri, the last location of the actress traced through her mobile data. After the alleged incident, Tak had escaped with two family cars to his native place in Kashmir, where he was earlier a forest contractor. He was arrested by the J&K police on July 8, 2012, in a forgery case but he later confessed to murders in Maharashtra.
On July 10, 2012, the bodies were dug out by the crime branch units 8, 9, 12. The infamous blue-red-yellow farmhouse was barricaded a night earlier and no one was allowed in the 5km radius.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police Ambadas Pote and Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Himanshu Roy led a battalion of scores of cops and dog squads, interrogating Tak for hours, before beginning with the digging. Officials had then said that he kept changing his statements, and even said that he had thrown the bodies off the hill, later confessing to the crime as bodies and blood-soaked mattresses, one after the other, were dug out when he pointed to the right spot.
The prosecution had examined 41 witnesses to prove the case against Tak, key witnesses being Shelina’s former husbands Patel and Shaikh. Shaikh, in his deposition, had claimed that even after their divorce he was in touch with Shelina’s children, all fathered by Patel. He claimed that Tak did not like him visiting their house to meet the children.
In his testimony, Shaikh said that the girls told him that Tak used to force them to move to Dubai for prostitution for more money. He said Tak often fought with Shelina and used to assault her.
