Nearly a week after the shocking attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan in his 12th-floor apartment in an upscale building complex in Mumbai’s Bandra, police continue to unravel details of the alleged attacker, Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla Amin Fakir alias Vijay Das (30), who is currently in their custody.
This is what we know about the Mumbai police’s investigation so far:
Also read: Saif attack: Accused jumped wall to enter complex, found guards asleep
What happened on January 16?
In the early hours of January 16 morning, an intruder broke into actor Saif’s 12th-floor flat in Satguru Sharan building. Saif and his actor wife Kareena Kapoor Khan’s sons’ nanny Eliyama Philip first stumbled upon the intruder at their younger son Jehangir alias Jeh’s room and raised an alarm.
The attacker allegedly told her not to make a noise and said “nobody will go out” in Hindi. Philip said in a statement to the police, “When I rushed to pick up Jeh, the man, armed with a wooden stick and a long Hexa blade and ran towards me and tried attacking me,” she said.
“I tried to block the attack by putting my hand forward, but the blade hit me near the wrists of both my hands and on the middle finger of my left hand,” she said. “At that time, I asked him, ‘What do you want?’ He said, ‘I want money.’ I asked, ‘How much do you want?’ He said in English, ‘One crore’,” Philip reportedly said in her statement.
Hearing Philip’s screams, Saif and Kareena rushed into the room. He attacked Saif with a wooden object and the Hexa blade, Philip said. However, Saif managed to break away from the intruder and hustled everyone out of the room and locked the intruder inside.
However, the intruder still managed to escape as Saif, who was stabbed multiple times, was rushed to Lilavati hospital in an autorickshaw, accompanied by his seven-year-old son Taimur and a domestic help. He underwent an emergency surgery to remove a piece of broken knife still lodged near his spine and to stop a spinal fluid leak.
After a police complaint was made, the Bandra police reached the spot and launched an investigation and caught Fakir after three days and two wrong arrests.
Also read: Saif’s attacker entered India 7 months ago, used Bengal resident’s Aadhaar for SIM
How did accused enter the building?
According to the police, Sharif scaled the building compound wall and went inside the main entrance after finding the security guards fast asleep.
“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,” an official told the media.
“As the accused found both the security guards in deep slumber, he entered the building from the main entrance where no CCTV camera has been installed. The accused removed his shoes and kept them in his bag to avoid making any noise and also switched off his phone,” he said.
During the probe, the police found there are no CCTV cameras installed in the building’s corridor, the official said. “The investigation revealed that one of the two security guards was sleeping in the cabin and the other near the gate,” he added.
According to the police, Shariful took the stairs till the seventh or eighth floor and then entered the duct area, climbed to the 12th floor using a pipe, and entered the actor’s flat through a bathroom window. He then came out of the bathroom, where he was spotted by Philip, who raised an alarm, triggering off the chain of events that led to the attack on Saif.
Even though Saif locked him up, Fakir left the flat the same way he entered it. He slept at a bus stop near Patwardhan Garden in Bandra West till 7am on January 16 after the incident. Later he boarded a train and reached Worli, where he bought some items which led to the police to him.
Also read: Saif stabbing: UPI payment for paratha, water led Mumbai police to alleged attacker
How the suspect was caught
Working under tremendous pressure to nab the culprit, the Mumbai Police formed 20 teams to track down the intruder. Initially, they did not have much to work on. They collected evidence from the actor’s home and the building with the help of forensic teams and the dog squad. A manhunt was launched across Mumbai to nab the attacker.
The police also got a visual of the intruder through CCTV cameras at Saif’s apartment. The visuals clearly showed the intruder scurrying down the backstairs of the apartment complex after committing the crime. So, at first, the police assumed he had help from a house help in Saif’s apartment and the maids were questioned.
However, after some false leads, the police minutely scanned CCTV footage to trace the man’s movements after he fled from Saif’s apartment. They found him buying a mobile cover at a Bandra police station stall and water and paratha outside a stall in Worli. That led the police to his phone number which they traced to Thane.
Three days after the attack, Fakir was arrested from a mangrove cluster in Thane where he was hiding. He turned out to be a Bangladeshi national, who had changed his name to Bijoy Das after entering India. During interrogation, Fakir said he panicked upon seeing his image flashing on news channels and social media and planned to flee back to Bangladesh, officials said, according to a PTI report.
Police officials have said that fingerprints collected from the duct and washroom window at the crime scene would be matched with those of the accused.
Before his arrest, police questioned several people who resembled the attacker and detained two people. But they had strong alibis and the police had no evidence against them and had to let them go. A carpenter, who had worked in Saif’s house two days ago, was picked up but he was released when the police verified his alibi.
Another suspect was picked up at Chhattisgarh but the police let him go after the main suspect was arrested around the same time, after he was caught hiding in a mangrove cluster in Thane.
What do we know about the accused?
According to the police, Fakir had crossed the Dawki River in Meghalaya to enter India illegally seven months ago. The police said the accused, who hails from Jhalokati in Bangladesh, stayed for a few weeks in West Bengal and used the Aadhaar card of a local to procure a SIM card before moving to Mumbai in search of a job.
He had been living in Mumbai for more than five months, doing petty jobs and was even associated with a housekeeping agency. In Mumbai, the accused chose to work at places where he didn’t need to furnish documents since he did not manage to get an Aadhar card. And a labour contractor Amit Pandey helped him get housekeeping work in pubs and hotels in Worli and Thane.
Upon being caught, he first told the police that he was a resident of Kolkata but he could not support the claim. After further interrogation, he revealed his true identity as a Bangladeshi national. The police, however, asked him to prove his claim. He reportedly called his brother in Bangladesh and asked him to send his school certificate on his phone, which proved his nationality.
What was the motive?
According to preliminary investigations, Fakir allegedly did not know he had entered actor Saif’s apartment. He only realised this later after he saw TV news and other social media posts of the incident, while he was on the run.
What did he plan to do next?
News reports quoting police officials said that Shariful planned to travel to Howrah in West Bengal and then proceed to Bangladesh when he realised that police were after him. He tried to arrange a train ticket to Howrah, but travel agents demanded more money because of the short notice. However, he was arrested from Thane before he could get his hands on a ticket.
In court
A Mumbai court on Sunday remanded Fakir in police custody till January 24 after observing that the police’s contention that an international conspiracy cannot be ruled out.
The police told the court that they needed to find out the motive behind the crime. Police inspector (Crime) Ajay Lingnurkar has been appointed as the investigation officer in the case.
Fakir is currently in the lockup either at the Bandra or the Santacruz police stations (as per the probe requirement) and no one except the investigation officer has permission to meet him. He is being provided food given to the other accused as well, an official said.
He has been charged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 311 (robbery or dacoity with the intent to cause grievous hurt or death), 331(4) (house-breaking) and other offences as well as provisions of Passport Act, the official said
The Mumbai police on Tuesday recreated the crime scene with the accused at Saif’s flat. They also took the accused to the other places that he possibly visited to have food, change clothes and board a train, the official said on Tuesday.
(With inputs from agencies)
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