Tak in police custody till July 19 in Laila Khan case

, Jul 9: A local court today remanded forest contractor Pervez Tak to police custody till Jul 19 in connection with the

case of Pakistani-origin Bollywood starlet Laila Khan.

The prosecution told the court that they want to find out where Tak has kept Laila Khan and other five members of the family and if he has killed them.

As of now, Tak has been booked for kidnapping though he reportedly confessed before the Jammu and Kashmir Police that he had killed them.

Crime branch sources said that they will interrogate Tak in connection with the alleged abduction case of Laila Khan and her other five family members.

Tak, arrested by Jammu and Kashmir Police, had reportedly told the interrogators that Laila and others were shot dead in Maharashtra last year. However, crime branch is not ready to believe Tak's version yet.

The crime branch of Mumbai Police, which is probing the alleged kidnapping of Laila Khan and her family, had said on Jul 6 that four members of the family were last located at Igatpuri in Nashik district of Maharashtra, but not Laila and her elder sister.

"The last location of four people -- Laila's mother Shelina (50), twin siblings Zara and Imran, and another relative -- was Igatpuri. But we suspect that it is not Igatpuri in Laila's case," a senior official 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... Tak is constantly changing his statement," the official said.

The starlet and her family went missing from here in Feb last year. A case of kidnapping was registered at the Oshiwara police station here on Jul 5, on the complaint of her father Nadir Patel.

According to the complaint, Tak and his accomplice Asif kidnapped Laila and others. Asif Shaikh was arrested here on Jul 5.

PTI