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In 2008, yesteryear superstar Rajesh Khanna was well past his prime, and had resorted to starring in B-movies. One of these films was Wafa: A Deadly Love Story. The movie featured character actors Tinnu Anand and Sudesh Berry, and it also featured a young actor named Laila Khan as the female lead. While the film didn’t leave much of a mark, it has become etched in infamy because of what happened. In 2011, Laila and five members of her family seemingly disappeared overnight. It was discovered that they had been brutally murdered by a family member, who had developed a resentment for them over the years. In a recent interview with crime writer and journalist Hussain Zaidi, former Mumbai crime branch officer Ambadas Pote, who investigated the case, recounted chilling details of what happened.
Pote said that Laila’s mother, Selina, had gotten married to a man named Parvez Tak. He was her third husband, who was living with the family in Oshiwara. Tak, who was described by Pote as a very religious man, wasn’t in favour of Laila working in the film industry. He was also resentful about how Laila treated him. When he complained to Selina about this, she told him to take it in his stride. The family had further arguments over property, and Parvez’s idea for Laila to work in Dubai. When she rejected this idea, he decided to kill everyone, Pote said.
Pote said that Tak’s first step was to get one of his associates hired as a watchman at the family’s Igatpuri farmhouse. This is where he had decided to kill them. He was also the one who made the suggestion for them to go to the farmhouse for a brief getaway. When the family didn’t return from the trip, Selina’s first husband, Nadir Shah, filed a complaint with the police. Tak’s Aadhar card was found at their residence, which led the police to investigate him. He was arrested in Kashmir in a joint operation by the Mumbai and J&K police forces. Tak was brought to Mumbai, where he provided a confession.
The family was taken to Igatpuri in a Mitsubishi car. They reportedly had a barbecue later that night, and danced together. It was after they’d retired to their rooms that Tak and his associate began attacking them brutally with a rod and a knife. Imran, Laila’s brother, tried to protect them despite being injured himself. Pote said that Tak made sure that each of them was dead by repeatedly attacking them even after they had fallen to the ground, unconscious. One of the family’s cars was then taken to Jammu, before being abandoned. Tak was apprehended in a joint operation between the J&K police and the Mumbai police.
The bodies were buried in a pit meant for a swimming pool. Three bodies were dumped into the pit first, covered with a mattress and pillows, followed by three more bodies. They were also covered with a mattress and pillows, and then with soil. When Pote and his team arrived at the scene, they immediately noticed that some of the mud had sunk into the ground because of the rains. After excavating the site for over six hours, during which they doubted Tak’s testimony many times, they came across some remains that were identified by the doctor as human. The skeletons were unearthed shortly afterwards, and then identified.
“Parvez Tak is a shrewd, cunning and dangerous criminal. But however much you run, you cannot hide. The law will catch up with you and you will be brought to justice,” Himanshu Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mumbai, told NDTV. In 2024, over a decade after the crimes, Tak was sentenced to death by a Mumbai sessions court in 2024. The court said, “The case showcases a totally barbaric act that shocked the collective conscience of society, making it a rarest of rare case… The execution of the act indicates that these were cold blooded murders, after commission of which the accused cold heartedly and meticulously planned screening of the evidence, which remained unnoticed for almost 17 months after commission of the offence.” Pote said that Tak’s associate, who was an accomplice in the crimes, was never caught.
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