Mumbai's Sessions Court has sentenced Laila Khan’s stepfather and main accused in her murder with 5 others, Parvez Tak, to death. Tak was found guilty in the murder case of actress Laila Khan and her family. Earlier this month, the court had convicted Parvez Tak of murder and destruction of evidence in the case of killing Laila, her mother and four siblings.
Tak was sentenced today by Additional Sessions Judge Sachin Pawar, who had found him guilty of murder and destruction of evidence, among other offenses under the Indian Penal Code, on May 9. In the 13-year-old case, the prosecution had examined over 40 witnesses against Tak.
The stepfather had murdered Laila, her mother (Celina Patel) and four siblings in their bungalow in Igatpuri in Nashik district in February 2011. Their bodies were recovered in the form of six skeletions from a pit in the farm house.
Parvez Tak was Celina's third husband. According to the prosecution, that Tak had felt that Selina and her family treated him like a servant. He feared that she would abandon him in India while relocating to Dubai. Later investigation revealed that Parvez had murdered Laila's mother Selina over a property dispute. He killed Laila and others because they saw him committing the murder, as per reports.
The case was filed after Khan, her mother Saleena, siblings Azmina, Imran, and Zara, and another relative, Reshma Khan, went missing from Mumbai in February 2011, after which her father, Nadir Patel filed a missing complaint with the Oshiwara police. After several months of investigation, the accused stepfather was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir Police in 2012, who was later handed over to Mumbai Police.
In this case, initially there was a theory about talk of an angle related to a terrorist incident. Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad was also involved in the investigation but the theory was later dismissed by the ATS.