Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 17: Kishtwar police had stepped-up searches for co-accused in Laila Khan and her six family members murder case in Kishtwar and Doda districts following confirmed inputs from Mumbai that he was wanted in the killings.
The accused has been identified as Shakir Hussain son of Mohammad Sharief, a resident of village Dodwar, Gandoh in Doda district.
“A search has been launched at various places to nab the co-accused, who was involved in the killing of Laila Khan and her five family members at their Igatpuri Farm House in Nasik district of Maharashtra on February 7, 2011 along with Parvez Ahmad Tak, a resident of Kishtwar, who has already been handed over to Mumbai Crime Branch by Kishtwar police after his arrest’’, DIG Doda-Ramban range Gareeb Dass said.
He added that during investigations of Laila Khan murder case by the Mumbai Crime Branch, the involvement of Shakir Hussain in the murder case has been confirmed. Shakir was working as a cook in the house of Laila Khan while Tak after initially working as driver of Laila’s mother, Selina Patel, had married her. He was third husband of Selina, the first being Nadir Shah Patel, a businessman, who had divorced Selina.
Police said all suspected hideouts of Shakir Hussain were being searched. The cops were also maintaining surveillance at Railway Station and Bus Stand to ensure that Shakir didn’t manage to escape outside the State. However, a possibility that Shakir might have already left the State can’t be ruled out.
The murder case of Bollywood starlet Laila Khan and her five family members had taken a new turn with disclosures by Tak that another Doda youth, Shakir Hussain was involved in the killings along with him and others at Igatpuri Farm House of the actor in Nasik, Mumbai in February last year.
Surprisingly, Kishtwar police before the arrest of Tak detained Shakir Hussain as he happened to be a close associate of the latter. Police had made the arrest after the seizure of Laila Khan’s Mitsubishi Outlander car from Kishtwar as Tak had gone underground.
Police had quizzed Shakir for a couple of days and then allowed him to go as they were unable to extract any clues from him. An inquiry was likely to be conducted against the police officers of Kishtwar, who failed to properly quiz Shakir and freed him without proper investigations.
“Now when the name of Shakir Hussain has figured in the killing of Laila Khan and her family during questioning of Tak and investigations by Mumbai Crime Branch, Kishtwar police has again launched a hunt for Shakir but he has gone underground and was untraced’’, police sources said.
As reported, both Tak and Shakir were present in the Igatpuri, Nasik Farm House of Laila Khan when the killings took place’’, sources said, adding they were involved in the killings.
Skeletons of Laila Khan, her mother Selina, twin siblings Imran and Zara, another sister Azmina and a cousin Rashma had been recovered by the Mumbai Crime Branch from Igatpuri Farm House of Laila at the behest of Pervez Tak.
PTI adds from Mumbai:-
A team of police and forensic experts today searched Bollywood starlet Laila Khan’s Igatpuri farm house in Nashik, where she and her family members were allegedly murdered and reconstructed the sequence of events leading to the killings with the help of arrested accused Parvez Tak, police said.
The team, along with Tak, reached the bungalow this morning and carried out extensive search operation, where they had collected a few sticks that could have been used while executing the crime, a senior police official said.
“Our team has also employed a few labourers in the area to assist in the search. There are about 25 to 30 people including policemen, forensic experts and labourers, who searched every nook and cranny of the bungalow,” a crime branch official added.
Tak explained how he executed the crime from start to end, the official said.
However, the official refused to comment, when asked whether there were any contradictions in the previous claims made by the accused.
“The team has also talked to the local people to know about the details of Khan’s family stay. Through the locals’ versions, we would be able know when the family had come to the bungalow for the stay, for how long they stayed and other day-to-day activities, etc,” Additional Police Commissioner (Crime) Niket Kaushik said.
The investigating team is likely to come back to Mumbai tonight, police said adding that their efforts to trace Tak’s associate Shakir Hussain have not yielded any results.
Sceptical about Tak’s claim that the killings took place on the ground floor of the farm house, police are now trying to pick up the trail on the blood stains found on the mattresses on the first floor.
According to police, Tak, the third husband of Laila’s mother Shelina (51), had a heated argument with her on the night of February 7 last year at the Igatpuri bungalow, following which, he hit her with a blunt object, causing her death.
As other members of the family, namely Laila (30), her elder sister Azmina (32), twin siblings Zara and Imran (25) and cousin Reshma alias Tulli, came running down from the first floor after hearing the commotion, Tak called watchman Shakir Hussain Wani, also from Kishtwar and the two had a scuffle with them.
After neutralising Imran, the only male member of the family, by hitting him on the head with an iron rod, the two killed others. There are grievous injury marks on Imran’s skull, police said.
Meanwhile, a skull-photo superimposition technique was also being used by the forensic team to identify the deceased, police said adding that, “With this modern method, the team can prepare a photograph of the deceased using the skull.”
Police have already collected DNA samples of mothers of Reshma and Shelina, besides that of Shelina’s first husband Nadir Patel.
The deceased family owned a locker in a private bank and we are in the process of finding out its contents, police said.
Alleging that Maharashtra Police did not promptly probe the Laila Khan case after the Bollywood starlet’s sudden disappearance with her family, her father Nadir Shah Patel today moved the Bombay High Court seeking transfer of the case from crime branch to CBI.
The city’s crime branch had last Tuesday claimed to have cracked the mystery behind the family’s disappearance last year with the recovery of six skeletons believed to be those of Laila, her mother Shelina, three siblings and a relative at the family farmhouse in Igatpuri.
In his petition, Patel has alleged the crime branch and local police in Maharashtra had not properly investigated the case for a year despite a missing persons complaint by him.
According to Patel, he had approached Oshiwara police last year to file a missing complaint but till the arrest of Tak no probe was initiated by the police.
It was only when Jammu and Kashmir Police gave details to the crime branch after Tak’s alleged confession that a probe was initiated, the petition said.
While seeking CBI probe, Patel has also sought action against the senior inspectors of Oshiwara and Igatpuri police stations for their failure to discharge their duties.
The petition will come up for hearing in due course.
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