Police on Sunday arrested a Bangladeshi national who allegedly stabbed actor Saif Ali Khan at his home three days ago during an attempted burglary. The police are questioning the suspect to unravel a possible “international conspiracy”.
However, a preliminary investigation suggested that the man did not know that he had entered the house of a Bollywood star and his intention was to steal, a senior police official said. A court remanded accused Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad (30) to police custody for five days after observing that the possibility of an international conspiracy by the police could not be ruled out.
The breakthrough came today when police traced Shehzad to a labor camp in a forest area in Thane, based on information provided by a contractor. Several police teams worked on several entries and analyzed images from several CCTV cameras over the past three days to find the attacker.
The investigation saw police arrest two lookalikes of a suspect captured in CCTV footage from Khan’s building over the past two days for questioning. The accused, later identified as Shehzad, was seen three times outside Dadar railway station, from where he was traveling to Worli Koliwada, the police officer said.
“Police reviewed hundreds of CCTV images and discovered the attacker had visited a contractor in the area,” he said. He said the contractor gave police details of the attacker and based on his instructions, police tracked him down.
The police officer said Shehzad changed his name to Vijay Das after entering India illegally from Bangladesh.
Police told the court that the accused was a Bangladeshi national and they had to find out the real motive behind the attack on the actor.
Police also told the court they needed to find out if there was an international conspiracy linked to the case.
However, defense lawyer Sandeep D Sherkhane claimed that his client had been residing in the country for several years and had vital documents (to stay in the country) and his family also lived in India.
According to preliminary investigation, Shehzad infiltrated the Bollywood star’s apartment in the early hours of January 16 with the intention of robbing him, police had said.
The accused only realized that he had attacked a Bollywood star after seeing TV news and social media posts, the officer said. After fleeing Khan’s apartment, Shehzad slept at a bus stop in Bandra until 7 a.m. before boarding a train.
