Bollywood starlet Laila Khan alias Reshma Nadirshah Patel (30) and her family members were enjoying a vacation at their Igadpuri farm house last February when things went wrong and the main accused — Laila’s mother’s third husband, Parvez Iqbal Tak (29) — allegedly killed all the six family members in a ‘fit of rage.’
Tak allegedly told the police that he disliked his wife’s proximity to her second husband Aasif Sheikh. The police also did not deny the possibility of property being the motive for the murders.
“He says the entire family was to move to Dubai and he felt stranded and abandoned,” Himanshu Roy, Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), told a press conference here on Wednesday.
Laila Khan and her five family members, including her mother Shehlina Khan, were reported missing last year by Laila’s father Nadirshah Patel. Shehlina Patel (59), her elder daughter Azmina Patel (32), second daughter Laila (30), twin children Zara and Imran (25), and another relative Reshma Sagir Khan alias Talli (19) went missing in February last year.
On July 3 this year, the case was transferred to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch after Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested and interrogated Tak, the main accused, in Kishtwar. A week later a Mumbai Police team, accompanied by forensic experts and doctors, unearthed six skeletons — five female and one male — from the Igadpuri farmhouse after Tak allegedly led them to the location.
The identities of the skeletons cannot be confirmed till the DNA test results are out. But Mr. Roy said, “Since Tak led us to the evidence, it is reasonably likely that the skeletons are of Shehlina Nadirshah Patel, Azmina, Laila, Zara, Imran and Reshma.”
Narrating the sequence of events on the basis of Tak’s testimony, he said, “On February 8, they all [the family members] had barbecue, they danced to music before retiring to their rooms on the first floor of the farmhouse at around 1 a.m. After some time, there was a heated argument between Shehlina and Parvez. They came down to the ground floor where Parvez hit her on the head with a blunt object. She was grievously injured and died due to it.”
“Listening to the cries, others came down. Blows were exchanged. In the meantime, Parvez called out Shakir Hussain, whom he had brought from Kashmir to be the watchman of the farmhouse two months before that. According to the information we have right now, both of them murdered the entire family,” Mr. Roy said.
The skeletons were found piled up in a pit in the farmhouse area. “Three bodies were at the bottom. Then there was a layer of Shahabad stones. There were blood-soaked mattresses, pillows, clothes, after which three more bodies were piled up. They were then found covered with another layer of Shahabad stone and mud,” Mr. Roy said.
The police also recovered jewellery pieces, one iron rod and two knives with bloodstains on them.
“It seems like the only male member was neutralised with heavy blows,” Mr. Roy said, adding that the male skeleton bears severe fractures on the skull.
According to the information given by Tak to the police, he and Shehlina had been living together since 2009. On February 2, 2011, the family decided to go for a vacation at Igadpuri. “However, Parvez, Shehlina and Talli went there first and stayed till February 7. When they came to back to the Oshiwara flat, they saw Imran, Laila and Zara were ready to go to Igadpuri,” he said. Thereafter, all the siblings and Talli went to Igadpuri in Laila’s Mitsubishi Outlander which she herself drove, and Tak and Shehlina went the next day.
After the murders Tak and Shakir allegedly went to Ghoti, around seven kilometres away from Igadpuri, and hired private drivers to take the Scorpio and Mitsubishi Outlander to Jammu & Kashmir. Then they went to the Oshiwara flat and possibly cleared it of all its valuables, the police said.
The entire family was to shift to Dubai as it is believed that Laila had married someone in Dubai who wanted everyone to shift there. Police sources said Shehlina was apparently unwilling to take Tak with them. It is not clear who Laila Khan got married to. According to unconfirmed reports, there might be an underworld connection to it.
The police are now on the lookout for Shakir Hussain Wani. Both Parvez and Shakir have been booked under Sections 201 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to murder and destruction of evidence.
They are also in the process of verifying Tak’s claim that the crime was done in a fit of rage.
“We have to yet examine if it was premeditated or it happened on the spur of the moment,” Mr. Roy said, adding that no one, including Aasif, have yet been given a clean chit by the Crime Branch.
