Thirteen years after the awful assassin of actor Laila Khan and five members of her family, a Mumbai sessions court has convicted Parvez Tak, her mother’s third husband, to death. The Khans were reported missing on February 7, 2011 and were last seen with Tak in Igatpuri. Tak was accused by authorities of killing the family in order to take their properties, which included flats on Oshiwara and Mira Road, a farmhouse in Igatpuri, and jewelry and cash. Tak also allegedly intended to push Laila and her sisters into prostitution, according to her stepfather and Shelina’s second husband, Asif Shaikh.
During the investigation, Tak, a forest contractor from Jammu and Kashmir with suspected ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, admitted that his insecurity drove him to murder Laila Khan, 30, her mother Shelina, her older sister Azmina, 32, twin siblings Zara and Imran, 25, and cousin Reshma, Shelina’s sister’s daughter. Azmina, Reshma, and Zara visited Dubai in 2010 to work with Tak’s acquaintance, an Arab national. When they returned to India, they refused to share their riches with him, causing strained ties and fueling Tak’s wrath.
According to the charge sheet filed by the crime branch, Tak conspired with an escaped accomplice to murder the entire family at their Igatpuri farmhouse. He arranged for the hiring of Shakir Hussain Wani, a wanted associate, as a watchman at the property. When the family arrived at the farmhouse, Tak got into a disagreement with Shelina and fatally attacked her with a blunt weapon. As the rest of the family raced to her rescue, Tak and the watchman allegedly killed Imran before murdering the remaining four family members with knives and rods. They buried the victims in the compound and set fire to the house to eliminate any traces.
The skeletal remains were eventually unearthed, and the crime branch alleged that Tak’s anger for Laila’s confidence in Asif Shaikh, who held power of attorney for their Mira Road flat, was also a motive for the killings.
Tak was found guilty and condemned to death by the sessions court last month, following thirteen years of testimony from 40 witnesses.
