‘Other than placing orders,they spoke to none’

Sharma said the middle-aged man sat in the front seat. He remembered a woman,too. When shown images of the family,Sharma identified Shelina as that woman and said he had not seen Laila then. “I remember seeing her (Shelina) in the car,but could not see who else was there. The family,however,stopped here often and would order takeaway food,” he said.

Ashabai,who owns a tea stall,said Laila and her relatives would often stop by for tea when they were driving in the direction of Mumbai. Ashabai’s shop is on the highway overlooking the Kasara ghats near the Ghatandevi Temple,and also offers a direct view of the hill that houses Laila’s bungalow.

“My interaction with them was very little,” he said. “I had worked as a labourer while the farmhouse was being built and remember thinking to myself that the rooms looked like separate houses in themselves.”

A local resident said no one tried to interact with the family as it was obvious they didn’t want to. “We did see them on several occasions. We knew Laila was an actress and assumed she did not want to talk because of the celebrity tag,” he said. Many people in the neighbourhood said they knew little about the family,apart from the fact that Laila was an actress,that the house was burnt down and skeletons have now been found in the backyard.

“One day,there was talk in the village that Laila had come to the market. Many people went to see her buy vegetables,” said a resident.