13 yrs after murders of actor and 5 of her kin, stepfather convicted

MUMBAI: Thirteen years after actor

Laila Khan

and five of her family were killed and buried at their Igatpuri farmhouse, a sessions court on Thursday

convicted

her stepfather, Parvez Tak, for the murders. Laila, whose original name was Reshma Patel, was last seen in the 2008 movie ‘Wafa: A Deadly Love Story’ with Rajesh Khanna.
Judge Sachin Balvant Pawar is likely to pronounce the sentence on Tuesday.

Maximum could be death, minimum life. Tak (48), a native of Kashmir, has been in jail since his arrest in 2012.
Laila, her mother Selina, siblings Azmina, Imran and Zara, and niece Reshma went missing in Feb 2011. A missing persons’ complaint was filed by Laila’s own father, who was Selina’s first husband. Tak, her third husband who was a road contractor based in J&K, became the prime suspect after two of Laila’s vehicles were recovered from Kashmir.
Among the motives, police had said Tak suspected Selina of adultery. The chargesheet also said Tak killed the six out of anger as he was not given a share of the money the family had received from business deals with a Dubai-based man known only as Shaikh.

Last week, Ujjwal Nikam, BJP’s Mumbai North-Central Lok Sabha nominee candidate, had resigned from 29 cases across the state in which he was appointed special public prosecutor.
This was among his eight cases in the city that have been reported. Nikam had examined over 40 witnesses including Laila’s mother Selina Patel’s former husbands -- Nadir Patel and Asif Shaikh.
It was the prosecution’s case that with the help of an absconding accused, Shakir Hussain, Tak hatched a conspiracy to murder Selina, her four children-- Reshma alias Laila, twins Imran and Zara Patel, Azmina and niece Reshma alias Talli.

The police had alleged that in Feb 2011, Tak persuaded Laila and her family to visit their Igatpuri farmhouse on the pretext of finding Kashmiri alliances for her and her sisters.
The chargesheet in the case said that Tak killed them on Feb 8, 2011.
Amid the evidence recovered from the farmhouse were details of the family’s bank accounts and six passbooks. The case came to be filed after the six went missing from Mumbai, after which Laila’s father, Nadir, filed a missing persons complaint at Oshiwara police station. The recovery of two MUVs belonging to Laila from Jammu & Kashmir triggered speculation that she could be in that state. Another theory that did the rounds said she was in Dubai with her ‘husband’, Sonu.
However, Tak, a road contractor from Kishtwar in J&K, and the third husband of Laila’s mother emerged as prime suspects after the seizure of the two MUVs. The crime branch recovered six skeletons from a pit in the farmhouse in Jul 2012. The police had submitted that Tak had led them to the bodies.
DNA evidence proved that they were the victims. In the 984-page chargesheet filed in Esplanade Court on Oct 3, 2012, the Crime Branch booked Tak and Hussain, under sections 302 (murder), 363 (punishment for kidnapping), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.