Mumbai: The accused who attacked Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan’s house has been caught. Mumbai Police arrested the attacker from Thane late Saturday night. He is originally from West Bengal. According to the police, the accused has kept many names like Vijay Das, Bijoy Das, Mohammad Ilyas, BJ.
According to media reports, the police team arrested the accused from Hiranandani Labor Camp area of Thane. According to the information, a few years ago he used to work as a laborer in this area. He has also worked as a housekeeper in a bar in Thane. After being caught, the accused confessed to the crime. Mumbai Police will hold a press conference at 9 am.
Earlier on Saturday, the police detained a suspect from Durg in Chhattisgarh. The police have interrogated about 50 people so far. 35 teams were deployed in the case.
Actor Saif Ali Khan suffered six stab wounds while struggling with the intruder who broke into his Bandra residence early on Thursday with the intent of robbery. The attacker had fled the scene, following which the actor’s son Ibrahim Ali Khan rushed him to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries.
Saif Ali Khan, who was said to be out of danger, is under recovery at the hospital. The prime accused, identified as Vijay Das, was previously employed at a pub in Mumbai. Now that he has been arrested, police will present before court later on Sunday for remand, the Mumbai crime branch said.
The attacker was caught in CCTV footage of the Satguru Sharan building, which houses actor Saif Ali Khan and his family. DCP Zone-9 Dikshit Gedam revealed that the attacker used the staircase to get upstairs to Saif’s 12th-floor apartment. Saif Ali Khan’s home staff Eliyamma Philips alias Lima was present in the house at the time of the incident and was the first one to spot the accused. In a bid to stop him, she engaged in a scuffle with him which resulted in the injuries on her hand.
Hearing Lima’s scream, Saif Ali Khan got alarmed and stepped out of his room. As he struggled with the accused, he struck the actor with a sharp knife around six times. Following this, the attacker fled the scene. In her statement to the Mumbai Police, Lima had described the attacker as a slim, dark-complexioned man in his late thirties, around 5 feet 5 inches tall.
Almost six hours after this incident, the accused was caught on CCTV camera buying headphones at a store in Dadar in a blue shirt around 9 a.m. on Thursday. Earlier, he was also seen at Bandra railway station, where he is believed to have boarded a train. Saif Ali Khan’s wife and actress Kareena Kapoor Khan had told the police that the accused got ‘very aggressive’ during his scuffle with Saif and stabbed the actor repeatedly.
However, she said, he did not touch any of the jewellery kept in the open. Saif Ali Khan was grievously injured in the scuffle with the attacker at his home. Doctors at Lilavati Hospital had revealed that the actor walked in with a knife lodged in his spine, adding that his spinal fluid was leaking. Admitted with six injuries to the hospital, which included two deep wounds on his left hand and neck, Saif Ali Khan underwent multiple surgeries and was said to be “out of danger”.