Mumbai:
The Bangladeshi national, who has been arrested on charges of stabbing actor Saif Ali Khan after breaking into his residence, entered India via Meghalaya seven months ago and spent a few weeks in West Bengal before moving to Mumbai in search of a job. sources have revealed.
Mumbai police officers involved in the interrogation of the suspect, Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, said the 30-year-old had crossed the Dawki River, along the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, to enter India illegally. He then changed his name to Bijoy Das and started living in the countryside, they added.
Police had earlier said that Shehzad hails from Bangladesh's Jhalokathi district.
According to a police official, Shehzad said that during his stay in Bengal, he used a local resident's Aadhaar card to purchase a SIM card for a mobile phone before moving to Mumbai.
The SIM card was registered in the name of one Khukumoni Jahangir Sekha from Bengal, the official said.
After reaching Mumbai, the officer added, the suspect chose to work at places where he did not have to produce documents. “He studied in Bangladesh till class 12 and had come to India in search of a job,” the officer said.
Saif Ali Khan suffered serious injuries after he was stabbed six times, allegedly by Shehzad during a failed burglary attempt at the actor's 12th floor residence in the 'Satguru Sharan' building in posh Bandra in the early hours of 16 January. Emergency surgery then removed a 2-inch section of a broken blade from his spine.
If the knife had penetrated 2 mm deeper, it could have caused serious injury, the doctors noted. The actor was discharged from the hospital and returned home on Tuesday.
Shehzad told police that he stabbed the actor in the back several times in an attempt to free himself after grabbing him. He also said he hid in the garden of the building housing Mr Khan's flat for around two hours before fleeing the area.
In her statement to police, Khan's wife and actor Kareena Kapoor Khan recalled the attack on her husband and said she saw the intruder stab him repeatedly. “The attacker was aggressive. I saw him attack Saif repeatedly… Our priority was to take Saif to hospital,” she said.
A nurse who takes care of the couple's youngest son Jehangir (Jeh), Eliyama Philips – who first encountered the intruder – said the accused had demanded Rs 1 crore.
Multiple teams from the police and crime branch worked on various inputs and analyzed footage from various CCTV cameras to track down Mr Khan's attacker.
After an intensive manhunt lasting over 70 hours, Shehzad was arrested on Sunday near Hiranandani estate in Kasarvadavali in Thane, about 35 kilometers from Mr Khan's house in Bandra. He was subsequently held in police custody for five days.
