Early on the morning of January 19, the police finally found the man who stabbed actor Saif Ali Khan, hiding in a marshy area on the edge of Thane city. Before that, suspects had been picked up from Bombay, Virar, Thane and Durg, but they turned out to be innocent. The attacker, who had entered Saif’s quadruplex flat in Satguru Sharan building at Bandra (Bombay) in the early morning hours of January 16 with a view to robbing, is a Bangladeshi illegal, Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammed Rohilla Amin Fakir. He had covered himself with dry leaves to stay concealed in the marshy region.
A 150-member team of Bombay and Thane police had narrowed down the search on the basis of CCTV footage and a tip-off. On January 17, one Jitendra Pandey, the owner of a manpower supply agency, gave the police a tip-off. Pandey had provided a housekeeping placement to the accused in a restaurant at Worli in Bombay and later in Thane. Shariful was sacked from the Worli job for theft.
Shariful has confessed to the crime. He was produced in the magistrate’s court at Bandra (Bombay) where he was remanded to police custody for five days. The police invoked the Foreigners’ Act, 1946, and Foreigners’ Order, 1948 for illegal entry, alongside Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections for armed robbery and attempt to murder against Shariful.
Meanwhile, Saif Ali Khan, who was operated upon at Lilavati Hospital for removal of the tip of the knife which got lodged in his thoracic spine, will be required to take bed rest for quite some time.
