Police continues hunt for Shakir
Excelsior correspondent
JAMMU/MUMBAI, July 9: A local court in Mumbai today remanded forest contractor Pervez Tak to police custody till July 19 in connection with the kidnapping and subsequent murder case of Pakistani-origin Bollywood starlet Laila Khan and her four family members.
Parvez Ahmad Tak, a resident of Kishtwar, who had married Laila’s mother, Selina Begum Patel, was yesterday handed over to a team of Mumbai Crime Branch by a Kishtwar court. Tak was flown to Mumbai yesterday.
The prosecution told the Mumbai court that they want to find out where Tak and others had kept Laila Khan and other four members of the family before “killing’’ them.
As of now, Tak has been booked for kidnapping though he had confessed before Kishtwar police that he had killed Laila and four other family members including Laila’s mother Selina Begum Patel, siblings Imran and Zara Patel and cousin Reshma Patel alias Laila Khan.
Crime Branch sources in Mumbai said that they will interrogate Tak in connection with the alleged abduction and killing of Laila Khan and her other five family members.
Tak had reportedly told the interrogators that Laila and others were killed in their Farm House at Igatpuri, Nasik in Maharashtra in February last year.
However, Crime Branch, Mumbai said they would first quiz Tak before converting the kidnapping case into murder.
The Crime Branch of Mumbai Police, which is probing the alleged kidnapping and murder of Laila Khan and her family, had said on July 6 that four members of the family were last located at Igatpuri in Nasik district of Maharashtra, but not Laila and her elder sister.
“The last location of four people — Laila’s mother Selina (50), twin siblings Zara and Imran, and another relative Reshma Patel— was Igatpuri. But we suspect that it is not Igatpuri in Laila’s case,” they said.
The kidnappers apparently took Laila and her elder sister Hazmina somewhere else, he said.
“It is also possible that Laila and her sister might not have gone to Igatpuri at all. We should wait’’, he added.
The starlet and her family went missing from Mumbai in February last year. A case of kidnapping was registered at the Oshiwara police station here July 5, on the complaint of her father Nadir Shah Patel, a prominent businessman.
According to the complaint, Tak and his accomplice Asif kidnapped Laila and others. Asif Shaikh, a Bollywood financier was arrested here on July 5. Besides Shaikh, Mumbai Crime Branch has also launched a hunt for Afghan Khan, a real estate developer.
In Kishtwar, police continued its hunt for an associate of Tak, identified as Shakir Hussain son of Mohammad Sharief, a resident of village Dodwar, Gandoh in Doda district.
Tak had claimed that Shakir, a cook in the house of Laila Khan, was also involved in the killings along with him.
As reported today, Shakir had been detained by Kishtwar police before the arrest of Tak. However, he had been released. Now, police have launched a fresh hunt to nab him, sources said.
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