MUFTI ISLAH investigates how a murderer was tracked and lured into a trap and the warped sequence of events that led to the massacre of an entire family at a farmhouse in Mumbai.
Near the famous sufi shrine of Shah Mohammad Fareed-ud-din Sahib that lords the mountainous Kishtwar township, Abdul Gani Butt lent out another torrent of abuses on his son. But this time the son chose to hit back. The talk soon veered on Parvaiz Tak – Amin’s son-in-law – now main suspect for wiping out Bollywood starlet Laila Khan and her family.
‘’You support a thief. Tell me where did he get a big car worth a crore of rupees? Where has he stolen it?’’ he fumed.
An intelligence sleuth of Jammu and Kashmir police had climbed close to their compound wall. He hung as if he was a fly on the wall and sniffed like a starved cat. His ears tickled and his stomach lining began to itch. He needed a release.
Next, he whipped out his cellphone and frantically began to punch numbers. At the other end was DSP headquarters Abrar Chowdhary. The officer called him in. A white gypsy then drove down the road and stopped near the office of Superintendent of police Bhim Singh Tutti.
Hours later the hunt for the priceless limousine had begun. The cops were bang on. A dusty shop at the nearby Om Mehta road revealed a flashy Outlander. Abrar and his men were surprised at the find. A motley crowd had started to pull in, curious to get a dope on Parvaiz Tak and his newly acquired riches. Many knew him as a village bloke-turned-cheat-turned-trickster. Others recognized him as an unsolicited carpenter who briefly wore the hat of a failed politician. They also took him as a prankster – a fox.
Equally foxed seemed the Kishtwar police on finding the car that bore a registration number of Maharashtra.
And cops in Mumbia could not tell where Laila’s family had gone missing 17 months ago. The Mumbia police were in a fix after a man named Nadir Shah had filed a report in February 2011 claiming his family members had suddenly disappeared from the metropolis.
The police then had traced the family’s call details to Nashik but no further clue had meant it lost the track of the case. The recovery of the car in far off Kishtwar, however, broke as a good news to them.
Things had in fact started to unfold in Kishtwar. When breaking open the Outlander proved tough, police got a mechanic from a Jammu car show-house to decode the locking system. A scented tissue paper with lipstick marks, a couple of empty cans and a hair drier meant the car was used by a woman or women.
No police can claim to be police if it does not stick to its basics: to doubt. Tak was the sole person they could doubt.
The noose on Tak had started to tighten even though he was several hundred miles away from his native village in Gandoh, 70 km from Kishtwar. His family and friends were being watched over, their phones put on surveillance. His father Mohammad Amin and a few close friends including Shakir Hussain, a cook cum watchman at the Laila household were detained. But no breakthrough could be achieved. All except Amin were let off.
He was police’s first and last hope.
On Amin, it played the good cop-bad cop. DSP Chowdhary was the good cop who would promise Amin his son would not be arrested for a ‘`minor’’ crime of forgery and cheating and that he will secure a bail.
Chowdhary was to become Tak’s lawyer and assume the name of Rahul Singh, a leading high court lawyer. And to fight the case, he would need an affidavit signed by Tak.
Amin was convinced. From the police safe-house, he called Tak’s friend who relayed the message through many chains to eventually reach his son in Nepal where he worked as a salesman at a handicraft showroom. An exited Tak called back many times using the voice over internet protocol. Police traced the calls to Bangalore and Hyderabad. Amin spoke briefly and then handed over the cell to `Rahul Singh’. Singh assured he would obtain bail for him and for that he would have to pay Rs one lakh as fee. Tak agreed to pay three times the amount “only if he faces no legal wrangles in future’’.
The deal was done. Singh persuaded him to come to Jammu to complete paperwork. An unsuspecting Tak walked into the trap.
Two days later, DSP Chowdhary, Amin and two sleuths in civvies were driving up in a private Maruti car to Jammu. Six hours later, Chowdhary the cop, and advocate Rahul Singh, – he wore both hats with ?lan – were waiting for their prized catch at the Jammu railway station.
Tak had set off for Jammu two days back in a train and was to arrive at a designated relative’s place in Jammu to pay the advance money to his “phony” lawyer. Snoopy policemen had called him regularly to keep track of his location. Tak had got suspicious.
A fox that he was, he got off before the last stop and hitched a cab. But upon reaching the railway station where Chowdhary and men were waiting, his father waved at him. He smiled, then grinned realising his game was up. The cops had surrounded him and packed him in the car. Minutes later they speed off for Kishtwar where he was put under sustained interrogation.
After initial flip-flops, he told police that he and his friend Shakir Hussain – now absconding – had hacked Laila and five other members at their Igatpuri farmhouse near Mumbia in a fit of rage. The family had come with Tak, servants and pets for a get-together with friends.
“Laila’s mother Salina had invited her second husband Asif Sheikh. Tak did not like that. He was angry,’’ said SP Tutti.
The party had got over and Tak was furious. He was shocked to learn that the family wanted to abandon him and leave for Dubia and that their properties would be looked after by Sheikh.
Late that night, the mood in the house was militant. Tak was having an argument over Sheikh with his wife Salina when it took a turn for worse. On the spur of the moment, he hit her head with a kitchen stone tool. The 52 year old was bleeding profusely and fell down. The commotion woke up Laila and her siblings who started thrashing Tak. Tak ran out of the house and came back with Shakir the watchman. The two picked up an iron rod and a stick and bludgeoned the remaining five members to death. Next, they piled them in a trench next to the swimming pool.
“In the heat of the moment, they even threw mattresses, jewelry and cellphones along with the bodies,’’ said Chowdhary. “I have never seen such a crime.’’
The Mumbia police last week took out what remains of the six bodies believed to be that of Laila, her sisters Azmina, Zarra, brother Imran, Salina and cousin Tully from the trench. They have taken samples for the DNA analysis and are interrogating Tak who has deconstructed the whole sequence.
The Kishtwar police, who tracked the case are not done yet. They are looking out for Shakir Hussian.
“We have traced his calls to Himachal as well to Kashmir. Very soon, we will get him,’’ said Chowdhary as he pulled the cover over the Outlander.
(Mufti heads CNN-IBN operations in J&K)
