With the Mumbai police finding the remains of six persons at actress Laila Khan’s Igatpuri farmhouse, the case of her disappearance has been laid to rest. On Tuesday, the Mumbai police led Laila Khan’s step father Parvez Tak to the Igatpuri farmhouse where they found the remains.
As the remains are merely skeletal, the Mumbai crime branch with the help of forensic technicians and doctors from JJ hospital concluded that skeletons belonged to five females and one male. This finding matches with six members of the Laila Khan family who went missing along with her in February 2011. However, the police are awaiting the DNA report to confirm the identity of Laila Khan, her mother, three siblings and a relative. There are marks of injury on their skulls including fractures which according to the police were sustained prior to the death.
According to Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Himanshu Roy, Tak led the police to the spot where the bodies were buried. Tak had disposed of the bodies in a six-feet deep pit that had been dug to be used as a septic tank. The six bodies were dumped in two layers separated by stone tiles and blood soaked mattresses. More tiles were layered on top to prevent animals from digging up the remains. Some of the remains had jewellery intact with bones. The bodies had been buried in a pile in one location.
“Till we get DNA reports, we cannot confirm the identity of the skeletons. However, we can say that since Parvez Tak led us to the skeletons and matches other evidences and with the sequence of events that are on record, it is likely that these skeletons belong to the missing persons - Laila Khan, 30, Selena Khan, 52, Azminam 32, Zara, 25, Imran, 25 and Reshma, 19,” Roy said.
Based on the interrogation of Tak who was brought from Jammu and Kashmir where he was arrested, the Mumbai police believe that the murder could not have been pre-mediated but occurred on the spur of the moment.
Roy said: “Tak had agreed to point out the spot where he had disposed of the bodies. Our teams have been able to recover six human skeletons found in a pit of size 12 x 8 feet with a depth of 6 feet. The pit was perhaps meant for an underground storage septic water tank.”