A probe into actor Saif Ali Khan’s stabbing has led Mumbai Police to question a woman in West Bengal, for allegedly providing a mobile phone SIM card to the Bangladeshi national who had entered the country illegally, and has been arrested for the attack.
Police sources said the woman, Khukumoni Sheikh, is from Chapra in Nadia district and was allegedly known to the accused Bangladeshi national, Sariful Islam.
“The SIM card the accused was using during his stay in India was traced to the woman. The woman is being questioned. She has, however, claimed that her phone was stolen earlier,” a source said.
Police had earlier said that Islam entered India through Meghalaya seven months ago and stayed in Bengal for a few weeks, before moving to Mumbai in search of a job.
Cops involved in the interrogation of the accused said the 30-year-old crossed the Dawki river, along the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, to illegally enter India. He then changed his name to Bijoy Das and began living in the country.
Police said that during his stay in Bengal, Islam used a local resident’s Aadhaar card to procure a mobile phone SIM card before moving to Mumbai.
“After reaching Mumbai, the accused chose to work in places where he was not required to furnish any documents. He studied till Class 12 in Bangladesh and had come to India in search of a job,” an officer had said on condition of anonymity.
Police also said they have accessed two identity cards that proves Islam is a Bangladeshi – a National Identity Card which says that Islam was born on March 3, 1994, and is the son of Mohammed Ruhul Islam, and a learner’s driving licence which reveals that Islam was a resident of Barisal, a city in south-central Bangladesh.
On January 16, Mr Khan suffered grievous injuries, after he was stabbed six times reportedly by Islam, during a failed burglary attempt at the actor’s 12th floor residence in “Satguru Sharan” building in upscale Bandra.
Multiple teams of the police and the crime branch worked on several inputs and analysed footage from several CCTV cameras to track down the actor’s attacker.
After over 70 hours of an intense manhunt, Islam was arrested from near Hiranandani Estate in Kasarvadavali in Thane, about 35 kilometres from Mr Khan’s house in Bandra, on January 19. He was subsequently remanded in police custody.
In her statement to the police, Mr 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 the hospital,” she said.
A nurse caring for the couple’s younger son Jehangir (Jeh), Eliyama Philips – who first encountered the intruder – said the accused had demanded Rs 1 crore.
Islam, sources earlier said, told police that he stabbed the actor in his back multiple times in an attempt to free himself after he had grabbed hold of him. He also said that he hid in the garden of the building housing Mr Khan flat for around two hours before fleeing the area.
Islam’s father, however, said his son is being framed for reasons unknown to him. “I will get in touch with the Bangladeshi foreign ministry and also seek help from the Indian High Commission in Dhaka for the release of my son,” Mohammed Ruhul Islam said.
The doctors who performed an emergency surgery on Mr Khan had removed a 2.5-inch piece of a broken knife from his spine afterwards. If the knife had pierced 2 mm deeper, it could have caused a severe injury, the doctors had noted. The 54-year-old actor was discharged from hospital and returned home on January 21.