Laila Khan case: Sequence of events reconstructed

Mumbai, Jul 17: A team of police and forensic experts 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 on Tuesday morning and carried out an 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 on Tuesday night, 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 Feb 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.

PTI