Police reconstruct gory murder of Laila Khan and family

Bollywood starlet Laila Khan and five of her family members were murdered and buried on the premises of their farmhouse in the Igatpuri area of Maharashtra by step father Pervez Tak after a quarrel over property turned violent, said Mumbai police today. Police officials said that based on details unveiled through the interrogation of Tak, they had gone to a farmhouse owned by Khan in Igatpuri where they had discovered six skeletons in a large pit that also contained bloodstained weapons, mattresses and clothes. [caption id=“attachment_374752” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screen grab of actress Laila Khan from CNN IBN[/caption] “We have been able to discover six human skeletons,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy told a press conference. He added that the skeletons had been buried in a pit along with blood stained mattresses and a pillow, and said that at least three skeletons had skull fractures and other injuries that had been sustained before death, he said. “Till we get the DNA reports I would not confirm the identity of the skeletons. However, since Tak has led us to the skeletons and based on the details he gave us, it is reasonably likely the bodies are of Laila Khan and her family members,” Roy said. According to the police, Tak, who was arrested in Kashmir, had gone with the starlet and her family to their farmhouse in February 2011. After dinner Tak got into an argument with his wife Selina and struck her on the head, killing her. When the other members of the family came out of their rooms, he attacked them and reportedly summoned the bungalow’s watchman Shakhir Hussain to help him, Roy said, adding that they killed the starlet and her siblings before burying them. They also set the bungalow on fire to destroy any evidence. Tak then took the two vehicles of the car and hired two drivers to take them to Kashmir, where they were found by local police. According to the police, Tak allegedly committed the murder since he did not like the fact that his wife trusted her previous husband more than him. She allegedly wanted to her previous husband custody of the property that the family owned, which was not appreciated by Tak.  The family was also planning to emigrate to Dubai and since Tak did not have a passport he may have felt insecure about it, the police said. However Kumar added that they were not ruling out the possibility that Tak had embellished the actual details of the murder to make it look as though it had been committed in the heat of the moment and was not pre-meditated. He said that they were planning to charge Tak under sections 302 and 201 of the penal code. (Murder and destruction of evidence) Tak had allegedly been staying with his family after fleeing from Mumbai until he was arrested by the local police, Roy said. Tak was arrested by the Kashmir police when he was found driving a car registered in Laila Khan’s name. The police said they were also investigating the possible involvement of another of the starlet’s stepfathers in the murder and had not ruled out the possibility of him being involved. On a complaint filed by Laila’s father Nadir Patel, a case of kidnapping has been registered at the Oshiwara police station in Mumbai. Laila, whose real name is Reshma Patel, was last seen in the 2008 film Wafaa, with veteran actor Rajesh Khanna.