200 cops part of search team at Laila Khan’s Igatpuri farmhouse

In a massive combing operation, the crime branch of Mumbai police on Tuesday escorted Parvez Tak, a forest contractor suspected of murdering actor Laila Khan and five of her family members, to their farmhouse in Igatpuri, Nashik, where he had confessed to have buried their bodies in February last year. HT reports.

In a massive combing operation, the crime branch of Mumbai police on Tuesday escorted Parvez Tak, a forest contractor suspected of murdering actor Laila Khan and five of her family members, to their farmhouse in Igatpuri, Nashik, where he had confessed to have buried their bodies in February last year. The operation will continue on Wednesday.

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The search party comprised around 200 policemen divided into five teams, as well as two teams of forensic experts, three dog squads, 25 labourers who dug up more than six sites shown by Tak, along with a number of technical instruments for scanning human parts.

Two police vans reached the Igatpuri site, 121km from Mumbai, along with joint commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Roy and deputy commissioner of police (detection) Ambadas Pote at around 10am, and the area within 4km of the farmhouse was cordoned off.

Although Tak has been changing his statement ever since he was arrested by the Jammu & Kashmir police on June 21, the crime branch has now more or less ascertained that Khan and her family members were killed by Tak and his accomplices after skeletal remains were found from the site later in the day. The police said a DNA test would reveal the identities of the dead.

Apart from Tak, Khan’s stepfather Asif Sheikh has also been arrested. Two farmhouse watchmen, Jolly Gilder and Memboob, who drove the family from Igatpuri to J&K in February last year, are also suspects in the case, but are yet to be arrested.

On July 4, a case of kidnapping was registered by Khan’s father Nadir Patel at the Oshiwara police station stating that Khan and five others — mother Celina, elder sister Azima, Zara and Imran (twins and Khan’s siblings), along with Khan's cousin sister, Affrin, had been missing since February 2011. Patel had blamed Tak and Sheikh for the kidnapping.

Director general of police (Maharashtra) K Subramanyam had asked the crime branch to take up the probe. Apart from the kidnapping case, it will also investigate the mysterious fire at Khan’s farmhouse after they were said to have left for J&K.