Saif Ali Khan’s attacker admits to crime, says ‘Yes, I did it’: sources

Mumbai:

A 30-year-old Bangladeshi national, arrested on Sunday for stabbing actor Saif Ali Khan after breaking into his house, reportedly confessed to the crime, saying: “haan, maine hi kiya hai (yes, I did).”

According to police sources, Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad was arrested near Hiranandani Estate in Kasarvadavali in Thane, around 35 kilometers from Mr. Khan’s house in Mumbai’s Bandra area. The breakthrough came after more than 70 hours of an intense manhunt launched following the attack during a failed burglary attempt in the early hours of Thursday.

After being arrested, when a senior officer asked Shehzad if it was he who attacked Mr Khan, the accused said: “haan, maine hi kiya hai” said a source.

Police traced Shehzad to a labor camp in a forest area based on information provided by a contractor.

As soon as Shehzad learned that a team of 100 policemen had arrived and was looking for him in Thane, the accused hid in the bushes of a forested area, a source said. “He was arrested after a seven-hour search operation in the city,” the source added.

Earlier in the day, police officer Dixit Gedam told reporters that Shehzad was a Bangladeshi national. “He does not have any Indian documents. Some things found in his possession show that he is a Bangladeshi national,” Mr Gedam said.

Police also said that the accused had been living in Mumbai for the past four months and had changed his name to Bijoy Das.

Defense lawyer Sandeep D Sherkhane, however, said the case had been high-profile because of Mr Khan’s presence.

Mr Sherkhane also claimed that his client had resided in the country for several years and had vital documents (to stay in the country), and that his family also lived in India.

A court remanded the accused to police custody for five days.

Khan, 54, was seriously injured after being stabbed reportedly six times by Shehzad during a failed burglary attempt at the actor’s 12th floor residence in the ” Satguru Sharan” from the posh Bandra district. Doctors who performed emergency surgery had then removed a 2.5-inch piece of broken knife from his spine.

If the knife had pierced 2mm deeper, it could have caused a serious injury, doctors found.

In her statement to the police, actress Kareena Kapoor Khan recalled the attack on her husband and said she saw the intruder stabbing him several times. “The attacker was aggressive. I saw him attack Saif several times… Our priority was to take Saif to the hospital,” she said.

A nurse looking after the couple’s younger son Jehangir (Jeh), Eliyama Philips – who first met the intruder – said the accused had demanded Rs 1 crore.

Several teams from the police and crime branch worked on several entries and analyzed footage from several CCTV cameras to track down Khan’s attacker.

On Friday, a carpenter was arrested because he resembled the suspect’s screenshot captured in CCTV footage of the actor’s building, but he was later released after it turned out he had no no connection to the crime. A day later, a suspect was arrested at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh, but was released on Sunday.