Laila Khan killer Tak wanted to flee to Nepal, seek LeT help

Mumbai: Parvez Tak, who was handed over to the city crime branch by the Jammu and Kashmir police after confessing having killed Bollywood starlet Laila Khan and her five relatives, has told investigators that he was planning to flee to Nepal to escape arrest.

Tak, who has already admitted to being associated with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), has said that his plan was to flee to Nepal, where the several active LeT members would have helped the fugitive cool his heels. However, even before Tak could cross the Nepal border, he was nabbed by the Jammu and Kashmir police in a forgery case. Later, when Tak revealed his involvement in the gruesome murders, the J&K police handed him over to the city crime branch. Following the unearthing of skeletons from the starlet’s Igatpuri farmhouse by nearly 1,000 policemen till late on Tuesday, a crime branch officer said, “Had Tak managed to cross over to Nepal and contact his LeT comrades there to help him escape further, it would have been difficult to arrest him. In fact, he would have become one among the many wanted persons on their list and the missing case of Laila Khan would have been a mystery forever.” Around 1,000 policemen initiated a search at the starlet’s Igatpuri farmhouse after Tak confessed having killed Laila, Salina, elder sister Hazmina, twin siblings Zara and Imran and another relative on February 7, 2011, and burying the bodies there. There is no proof to ascertain if the remains are that of Laila and her relatives. However, the place where the remains were found was pointed out by Tak. The remains have been sent to the forensic laboratory for identification. The Igatpuri farmhouse was the last location traced through Laila’s cellphone records. DNA