- Sunday, February 23, 2025
The 54-year-old actor sustained six stab injuries in a scuffle with an intruder at his home in Mumbai. He was rushed to a nearby hospital
By: India Weekly
BOLLYWOOD star Saif Ali Khan, 54, was in surgery on Thursday (16) for six stab injuries received in a scuffle with an intruder at his home in Mumbai, media said.
The son of former India cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore, Khan is among the country’s most bankable stars, having featured in more than 70 films and television series, and also a producer.
He lives in an apartment in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra, along with his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan, who is also an actor, and their two children, Jeh and Taimur.
Khan was taken to a nearby Lilavati Hospital at around 3:30 a.m. on Thursday with six injuries, two deeper than the rest and one close to his spine, the hospital’s chief operating officer, Niraj Uttamani, told the media.
“Saif sustained six injuries, two are minor, two intermediate and two deep injuries, one of the injuries is on the back which is close to spine. A neurosurgeon was involved in the surgery. The wrist wound is also deep. It’s on the left hand and requires a plastic surgeon,” he added.
Dr Nitin Dange, neurosurgeon at Lilavati Hospital, who performed the surgery, said Khan had sustained major injury to his “thoracic spine.”
The surgery was performed to remove a 2.5-inch piece of knife from the spine and repair the leaking spinal fluid and now he is stable, he added.
“Khan is completely stable now. He is in recovery mode and is completely out of danger. We will shift him out of the ICU tomorrow morning and maybe plan a discharge in a day or two,” Dr Dange said.
No person has been arrested so far, a senior police official said.
Police said they were investigating the incident, and searching for the assailant, who fled the scene, media said.
The matter is being investigated and a case is being filed by Bandra police. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 9, Dixit Gedam said, “An unidentified person intruded the residence of actor Saif Ali Khan.”
CCTV visuals of the intruder have been traced and ten teams have been formed to investigate the offence, police said.
As per the preliminary probe, the intruder did not force his entry or break into the actor’s 12th floor flat, but possibly sneaked in at some point earlier in the night, a police official said.
After the incident that took place around 2.30 am, the attacker took the staircase to escape. His CCTV visuals were traced on the sixth floor, police sources said.
Khan’s house-help, who raised an initial alarm, suffered a minor knife injury during the scuffle.
She later went to the police station to lodge a complaint for alleged attempted murder and trespassing.
Police, however, did not confirm the sections under which the First Information Report was registered.
The actor’s representatives described the incident as an “attempted burglary” though police were yet to comment on it.
Call for security
Film stars and opposition leaders called for tougher security.
“If such high-profile people with … security can be attacked in their homes, what could happen to common citizens?” Clyde Crasto, spokesperson of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, said on messaging platform X.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said, “No one is safe. Let alone ordinary people, even celebrities who have their own security are not safe.”
Police in the state are mostly deployed for the security of politicians, “especially those who defect”, Raut said, adding, “There is no fear of law. The government stands exposed.”
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies won the November elections in the western state of Maharashtra, the capital of which is Mumbai.
Actor and filmmaker Pooja Bhatt also called for a greater police presence in the suburb home to many in the film industry.
“The city, and especially the queen of the suburbs, have never felt so unsafe before,” she said on X, using a popular description for the trendy area.
It may be recalled that actor Salman Khan, who also lives in the same suburb and is facing threats from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, had recently installed a bullet-proof glass panel outside the balcony of his flat.
Two members of the Bishnoi gang had opened fire outside Salman’s house last April.
Salman had recently bought a bullet-proof car.
Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam slammed the opposition for trying to politicise the attack on Khan.
Kadam said the latest attack was a robbery attempt and it should not be linked to former state minister Baba Siddique’s murder and threats issued to actor Salman Khan.
Mumbai is a safe place, the minister asserted, and claimed the opposition was trying to malign the police. (Agencies)
