- Wednesday, January 22, 2025
There are no CCTV cameras at the main entrance and the corridor of the building. After escaping from Saif’s apartment, the attacker hid in the building’s garden for two hours
By: India Weekly
THE BANGLADESHI national arrested for attacking Saif Ali Khan gained entry into the actor’s building here by scaling its compound wall and went inside the main entrance after finding the security guards asleep, police said.
The Mumbai police on Tuesday (21) recreated the crime scene with the accused at the Satguru Sharan building in Bandra area, where the actor resides.
Khan (54) was stabbed repeatedly by the intruder, Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla Amin Fakir alias Vijay Das (30), inside his 12-floor apartment in the wee hours of January 16.
The actor suffered multiple stab injuries in the attack and underwent an emergency surgery at the Lilavati Hospital. He returned home on Tuesday.
The police arrested the accused from neighbouring Thane city on Sunday.
In order to recreate the crime scene, the police took the accused to the actor’s building as well as at other places that he possibly visited to have food, change clothes and board a train, the official said on Tuesday.
“Both the security guards in the building, where actor Saif Ali Khan resides, were sleeping when his attacker entered it by crossing over the boundary wall,” the official said.
One was asleep in the cabin and the other near the gate, he added.
The accused entered the building from the main entrance where no CCTV camera has been installed. The police also found there are no CCTV cameras in the building’s corridor.
The accused removed his shoes and kept them in his bag to avoid making any noise and also switched off his phone, the official he said.
Knife attack on Saif
The attacker later told the police that he stabbed the actor in his back multiple times to free himself from his tight grip.
After the attack, the intruder escaped from Khan’s flat and hid in the garden of the building for around two hours, a police official said.
“The accused entered the actor’s flat from the bathroom window with the intention of theft. After he entered the house, the actor’s staff spotted him and confronted him. Soon, Saif Ali Khan came there and sensing a threat, he held the accused tightly from the front,” the police official said.
“As the accused did not get time to move, he started stabbing the actor in his back to free himself from the latter’s grip. As Khan was injured in the attack, the accused managed to break free from his grip,” he said.
Later, Khan locked the main door of his flat assuming that the attacker was still inside.
However, the accused managed to flee using the same route through which he had entered, the official said.
The police have earlier said that the fingerprints of the accused have been found at the crime scene, including the bathroom window from where he entered and exited, the duct shaft and the ladder he used to enter from the duct.
Fakir, a native of Jhalokathi district in Bangladesh, was residing in Mumbai for more than five months, did odd jobs and was associated with a housekeeping agency, according to police.
A court in Mumbai on Sunday remanded the accused in five-day police custody. (PTI)
