13 years after Laila Khan's murder, Mumbai court sentences stepfather to death

Before they went missing, the Khans were last seen with Tak, Laila's mother Shelina's third husband, in Igatpuri

Actor Laila Khan and five members of her family, who were reported missing on February 7, 2011. HT Photo (HT file)

Thirteen years after the murder of actor Laila Khan and five members of her family, who were reported missing on February 7, 2011, a Mumbai sessions court on Friday sentenced her mother's third husband, Parvez Tak, to death.

Before they went missing, the Khans were last seen with Tak, Laila's mother Shelina's third husband, in Igatpuri. 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 Shelina's second husband, Asif Shaikh, had alleged.

During the investigation, Tak, a forest contractor from Jammu and Kashmir suspected of having links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, admitted that his insecurity had led him to murder Laila Khan, 30, and other members of her family, including her mother, Shelina; older sister, Azmina, 32; twin siblings, Zara and Imran, 25; and cousin, Reshma – daughter of Shelina's sister.

According to the police, in 2010, Azmina, Reshma, and Zara had gone to Dubai and worked with an Arab national known to Tak. 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, 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 along with an absconding accused 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 Laila Khan's family reached the farmhouse with Tak, he had an argument with Shelina, 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 then exhumed the skeletal remains of the six from the farmhouse and claimed the family's plans to relocate to Dubai drove Tak to murder them. Tak also hated the trust that Laila had reposed in Asif Shaikh, 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 held Tak guilty last month.