Bangladesh national held for stabbing Saif

The police on Sunday arrested a Bangladesh national for allegedly stabbing actor Saif Ali Khan at his residence three days ago during a burglary bid. The police are interrogating the suspect to unravel “international conspiracy”, if any.

However, a preliminary probe suggested that the man was unaware that he had entered a Bollywood star’s house and his intention was theft, a senior police official said. A court remanded the accused, Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad (30), in five-day police custody after observing that the police’s contention of an international conspiracy could not be ruled out.

The breakthrough came today when the police traced Shehzad to a labour camp in a forested area in Thane based on the information provided by a labour contractor. Multiple police teams worked on several inputs and analysed footage from several CCTV cameras in the last three days to track down the attacker.

The probe saw the police picking up two lookalikes of a suspect captured in a CCTV footage of Khan’s building in the last two days for questioning. The accused, later identified as Shehzad, was seen outside the Dadar railway station three times from where he went to Worli Koliwada, the police officer said.

“The police examined hundreds of CCTV footage and found out that the attacker had visited a labour contractor in the area,” he said. He said the labour contractor gave the police details about the attacker, and based on his direction, the police traced him.

The police officer said Shehzad had changed his name to Vijay Das after entering India illegally from Bangladesh.

The police told the court that the accused was a Bangladeshi national and they needed to find the real motive behind attacking the actor.

The police also told the court they needed to find out if there was an international conspiracy linked to the case.

However, defence lawyer Sandeep D Sherkhane contended his client was residing in the country for several years and had vital documents (for staying in the country) and that his family was also living in India.

As per the preliminary probe, Shehzad sneaked into the Bollywood star’s apartment in the early hours of January 16 with the intention of theft, the police had said.

The accused realised that he had attacked a Bollywood star only after seeing television news and social media posts, the officer said. After fleeing Khan’s flat, Shehzad slept at a bus stop in Bandra till 7 am before boarding a train.