Police recreate knife attack at Saif Ali Khan’s Bandra home

Police recreate knife attack at Saif Ali Khan’s Bandra home

The Mumbai Police on Tuesday took the accused, Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, to Saif Ali Khan’s residence to recreate the crime scene. Shehzad was escorted to Khan’s apartment on the 12th floor of the Satguru Sharan building in Bandra at around 5:30 a.m. The police team conducted a detailed reconstruction and is trying to ascertain how the accused reached the actor’s home, as he was not seen on any security camera upon entering the building.

Afterward, the police retraced every place the accused visited once he left Saif Ali Khan’s house. Shehzad was taken to the garden near the Satguru Sharan building and then to the National College Bus Stop, where he reportedly stayed for a while after committing the crime. During the investigation, he was also taken to Bandra Railway Station, from where he fled. The police aim to determine how he reached the station.

Authorities have been trying to piece together the chain of events from Shehzad’s entry to the building until his escape. Shehzad, a 30-year-old Bangladeshi national, was arrested on 19 January in Thane city. The Mumbai Police claim he is from the Jhalokati district of Bangladesh and was about to flee to his native village when he was detained at Hiranandani Estate in Thane.

A court remanded the accused in police custody for five days. According to reports, he confessed to the crime, saying, “haan, maine hi kiya hai” (“yes, I did it”). Shehzad allegedly entered Khan’s house on 16 January to commit a robbery and attacked the actor with a knife, stabbing him six times during the failed burglary attempt.

Police sources say Shehzad was arrested near Hiranandani Estate in Kasarvadavali in Thane, about 35 kilometres from Khan’s residence in Bandra. This breakthrough came after over 70 hours of an intense manhunt launched following the early-morning attack on Thursday. Officers eventually tracked Shehzad to a labour camp in a forested area, where he attempted to hide in the bushes once he became aware the police were close. He was arrested after a seven-hour search operation in Thane.

DCP Dixit Gedam told the media on 19 January that Shehzad is a Bangladeshi national. “He does not have any Indian documents. Some items found in his possession indicate he is from Bangladesh,” Gedam said. The police also revealed that Shehzad had been living in Mumbai for four months and had changed his name to Bijoy Das.