Bangladeshi arrested in Saif attack case

 

THE man arrested on Sunday in the January 16 Saif Ali Khan attack case was in Bandra till 7 AM on the day of the incident and slept at a bus stop, a police official said. A man who was detained in Chhattisgarh’s Durg railway station in connection with the January 16 Saif Ali Khan attack case was released on Sunday, a police official said. Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, a Bangladeshi national who had illegally entered India and changed his name to Bijoy Das, was held earlier in the day from adjoining Thane city. Police said he had entered the Bollywood star’s home, in Satguru Sharan building in Bandra, in the early hours of January 16 with the intention of theft. “He slept at a bus stop near Patwardhan Garden in Bandra West till 7 am on January 16 after the incident. Later he boarded a train and reached Worli (in central Mumbai),” the official said.

 

“Our probe has found that he took the stairs till the seventh-eighth floor, then entered the duct area, climbed to the 12th floor using a pipe, entered the actor’s flat through a bathroom window. He then came out from the bathroom, where he was seen by the actor’s staff, which led to the chain of events that resulted in the attack,” the official said. The official said the accused started arguing with a nanny in the house and sought Rs 1 crore, and hearing the ruckus, Khan arrived there and nabbed him from the front, the official said. “The accused was startled and stabbed Khan in the back. Khan later locked the flat believing the accused was pinned inside.

 

However, the accused managed to flee from the same area from where he had entered. We have recovered a hammer, screwdriver, nylon rope and other materials from his bag,” the official said. These items make the police suspect he may have criminals antecedents, the official added. The accused came to know that he had attacked a Bollywood star only after seeing television news reportage and social media posts of the incident, the official said. Meanwhile, another official claimed Shehzad got time to flee as a detection personnel from Bandra police station took the CCTV digital video recorder (DVR) of Khan’s building, and these were not shared with the Mumbai Crime Branch. Earlier in the day, police said Shehzad hails from Jhalokathi, also called Jhalakathi, district in southern Bangladesh, adding that he was in Mumbai for the past five months, during which he did petty jobs, including at a housekeeping agency.