Laila Khan Murder Mystery: New Report Says Starlet is Alive

Pakistan-origin Bollywood actress Laila Khan, who was reported missing along with her family since February 2011, has been shot dead, police said.

Laila Khan was best known for her role in 2008 released movie "Wafa: A Deadly Love Story", where she starred opposite Bollywood's first superstar Rajesh Khanna.

Laila's friend Parvez Iqbal Tak, who is a key suspect in the missing case of the actress, confessed that Laila and her family were shot to their death in February 2011 in Maharashtra.

During police interrogation, Tak admitted that they were murdered for their money and property worth millions of rupees, on February 4 last year.

The state anti-terrorism squad is investigating the murder case. Meanwhile, the Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday booked Tak for kidnapping the actress and her family. He was earlier arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police a couple of weeks ago in connection with another case.

Laila, whose real name is Reshma Patel, had gone missing with her mother Saleena Patel, sister Azmina Patel and step father Asif Sheikh about a year ago. Nadir Shah Patel, her father, filed a complaint at a Mumbai police station saying that he could not locate his family.

During the investigation, police obtained her last mobile phone call records which showed her location as Nashik, Maharashtra. The last call was made in February last year after which her phone was switched off.

Laila had a farm house at Igatpuri, a hill station in Nashik. Police officials had earlier visited her farm house to gather information.

Earlier in June, the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) questioned actress Rakhi Sawant's brother director, Rakesh Sawant, for six hours in connection with the Laila Khan missing case.

Rakesh was shooting his second film "Jinnat" with Laila before she disappeared. It was also reported the director reportedly met Tak, a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba member, at her farm house.

Previous reports suggested that the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) alleged Laila Khan of having relations with the Pakistani spy agency ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The actress was also married to Munir Khan, a member of the Bangladeshi terror outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami.

Murder Story A Fake?

According to Daily Bhaskar, Parveez Tak lied about Laila's death in order to protect her from Indian intelligence agencies.

"Asif alias Sonu and another sharpshooter were hired to eliminate Laila and her two sisters, mother and brother. They were taken to Mumbai's outskirts on the pretext of providing a safe house there. Laila's Mitsibushi Out lander and Scorpio SUV were used to take them. All the bodies were buried after shooting," Tak's statement read.

Mumbai police, who registered a kidnapping case against Tak, are now hoping to get custody of Tak from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, for interrogation over his connection with Laila.

"We will take Parvez in custody to figure out whether he is not cooking up stories to protect Laila and her family," Daily Bhaskar quoted a senior Police officer from Mumbai Police as saying.