Cops find 2 wooden rods at Igatpuri

The crime branch team of 25 policemen and forensic experts who were at Laila Khan’s Igatpuri farmhouse on Tuesday, recovered two wooden rods that the accused used to murder Khan and five of her family members.

The crime branch team of 25 policemen and forensic experts who were at Laila Khan’s Igatpuri farmhouse on Tuesday, recovered two wooden rods that the accused used to murder Khan and five of her family members.

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The crime branch had taken along murder accused Parvez Tak as well as Asif Sheikh, Celina’s (Laila’s mother) second husband, to recreate the crime scene.

Police clarified that Sheikh was not an accused and was taken along only to aid police investigations as he had been to the farmhouse many times.

Joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy confirmed that police had found the wooden rods and that they were bloodstained and wrapped in plastic.

“The officials questioned Tak on several fronts and tried to verify his statements with facts. Also, five local witnesses were present to corroborate the statements that Tak had made to the crime branch,” an officer said.

Police officers said there were a few contradictions in Tak’s statements, which the police were verifying.

The sequence of the murders was reconstructed by the team. Later, around 3 pm, Tak was taken to Ghoti, a town 7 km from Igatpuri, where he and his accomplice Shabir Hussein, also from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), had gone to after the murders.

The two had hired drivers from the town to take them to J&K.

Further, on the evidence front, the police are also checking details of Laila Khan’s bank locker that she maintained with a private bank in the city.