Mumbai cops to take custody of starlet murder accused

As mystery shrouds the death of starlet Laila Khan, the Jammu and Kashmir Police are likely hand over the custody of the prime suspect, Parvez Iqbal Tak, to the Mumbai Police next week.

Sources told Deccan Herald that a six-member Mumbai Police team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjay Mohre, which arrived at Jammu on Thursday to take Tak’s custody, could not produce requisite documents.

Deputy Inspector General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, Gareeb Das, said he would come to Mumbai with Tak after the Maharashtra police acquires his custody, adding that the chief judicial magistrate of Kishtwar remanded Tak in custody of J&K police for seven days.

Das further revealed that Tak has retracted from his previous statement that Laila Khan had gone to Dubai. “Tak told us that Laila’s husband Asif Khan had taken his wife and her family to a forest area, 120 km from Mumbai and killed them there in February last year,” the DIG said.

However, Das said police suspect that Tak could be involved in the murder.
Sources said Laila Khan and her family,  who went missing in February 2011, were killed for the money and property worth crores that the family owned. Additional superintendent of police, Kishtwar, Kuldeep Singh said during interrogation Tak revealed that some Bollywood celebrities and a builder from Mumbai were also involved. “It would be improper to reveal the names since investigation is in progress,” he added.

Laila, who allegedly had connections with the Lashker-e-Toiba, came under the scanner during the Delhi High Court blast probe after it emerged that a Mitsubishi Outlander (MH02-AY-7867), registered in her mother Saleena Patel’s name, was used for ferrying explosives by terrorists.

In a major breakthrough in the case, the J&K police on May 28 found the Mitsubishi Outlander at Tak’s rented shop in Kishtwar in Jammu. Laila’s mother, Saleena had married Tak, Singh disclosed.

On June 21, the J&K police arrested Tak, a local forest contractor who had gone underground after the SUV was recovered from his shop. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2008 Assembly elections from the Inderwal constituency in Kishtwar, on NCP ticket.

Meanwhile, J&K police have registered a fresh FIR against Tak for allegedly forging the PAN card of Nadir Shah Patel, Laila Khan’s father. It was learnt that the PAN card recovered from Tak’s possession had his photograph but Patel’s name.

The cases of Parvez Iqbal Tak

Parvez Iqbal Tak has at least two cheating cases registered against him in Hoshiarpur, Punjab and Kishtwar, Jammu, reports DHNS from Srinagar. Police sources told Deccan Herald that Tak had allegedly extracted money from several people in Kishtwar on the promise of providing them central government jobs.

He also cheated a retired naval officer from Hoshiarpur. “Tak had gained entry in the home of the officer on the pretext that his family had been killed by terrorists and he was in need of a job as domestic help. Soon after, he extracted Rs 3 lakh from the officer and ran away,” they added. Tak, 36, is believed to have married thrice.