Laila Khan’s stepfather found guilty of murdering her, 5 other family members

Before they went missing, the Khans were last seen with Parvez Tak, Laila’s mother Celina’s third husband, in Igatpuri. Police had suspected that he murdered them as he wanted to usurp their properties, including a flat and a shop in Oshiwara, another flat in Mira Road and the farmhouse in Igatpuri along with jewellery and cash. Tak also wanted to push Laila and her sisters into prostitution, her stepfather and Celina’s second husband Asif Shaikh had alleged

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Thursday convicted Parvez Tak, the main accused in the murder of starlet Laila Khan and five members of her family who had gone missing on February 7, 2011. Their bodies were discovered over a year later, in July 2012, buried inside a pit at the actor’s farmhouse in Igatpuri.

Laila Khan during the shoot of Film Wafa at Lonavala in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, April 15, 2007 - (Photo by Prodip Guha) (Hindustan Times)

Before they went missing, the Khans were last seen with Tak, Laila’s mother Celina’s third husband, in Igatpuri, and the police had suspected that he murdered them as he wanted to usurp their properties, including a flat and a shop in Oshiwara, another flat in Mira Road and the farmhouse in Igatpuri along with jewellery and cash. Tak also wanted to push Laila and her sisters into prostitution, her stepfather and Celina’s second husband Asif Shaikh had alleged.

During the investigation, Tak, a forest contractor in Jammu and Kashmir suspected of having links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, admitted that his insecurity had led him to murder Laila Khan and other members of her family including her mother Celina, older sister Azmina, twin siblings Zara and Imran and cousin Reshma.

According to the police, in 2010 Azmina, Reshma and Zara had gone to Dubai and worked with an Arab national known to Tak, Celina’s third husband. Relations between Tak and the family soured when they refused to share their earnings with him after they returned to India.

In the charge sheet submitted at the sessions court, where the trial was underway, the crime branch noted that the refusal to share earnings from the Dubai trip offended Tak and he held a grudge against the sisters; so, he hatched a conspiracy to eliminate the entire family at their Igatpuri farmhouse and usurp their property.

Accordingly, Tak ensured that his associate and a wanted accused, Shakir Hussain Wani, was hired as a watchman at the farmhouse. After Lalila Khan’s family reached the farmhouse with Tak, he had argument with Celina, following which he hit her with a blunt object leading to her death. When other family members rushed to help, Tak allegedly bludgeoned Imran with the help of the watchman. The duo then killed the remaining four family members using knives and rods, buried all the bodies in the compound and set the house on fire to destroy the evidence.

The crime branch subsequently exhumed the skeletal remains of six bodies from the farmhouse and claimed the possible relocation of the family to Dubai drove Tak to murder them. Tak also hated the trust that Laila had reposed in Asif Sheikh, who held the power of attorney of their Mira Road flat.

After a lapse of thirteen years since the incident and examining 40 witnesses, the sessions court on Thursday pronounced Tak guilty. The matter has been posted for sentencing on May 14.