Police turn to ‘international conspiracy’ in Saif Ali Khan knife attack case
Police investigating the near-fatal knife attack on actor Saif Ali Khan have tweaked the motive of the crime from attempted robbery to a wider ‘international conspiracy’, getting a five-day remand from a Mumbai court on Sunday to quiz a detained suspect they described as Mohammed Shariful Shehzad from Bangladesh.
“The accused is a citizen of Bangladesh. The suspicion of international conspiracy cannot be said to be impossible. So, sufficient time has to be given to the investigating officer. Therefore, granting police custody of five days,” the court said.
Reports were still sketchy about the 2:30am Thursday incident at the actor’s 12th-floor highly guarded home in Mumbai’s Bandra locality. The police were being secretive in their probe leading to considerable speculation.
During the hearing, the investigating officer defended his 14-day custody demand and said that the accused trespassed into Khan’s residence, attacked the actor, and injured two others. “Saif Ali Khan sustained grievous injuries, including a knife embedded in his body. We need to investigate how the accused entered the actor’s residence and his motives behind the attack.
“He is a Bangladeshi national, and it is important to determine how he entered the country. We need 14-day custody,” the investigating officer insisted.
‘No criminal record’
The defence lawyer opposed the request for custody, arguing that the accused is not a Bangladeshi but an Indian citizen who resides in Mumbai. “The matter is being unnecessarily hyped because it involves Saif Ali Khan. Otherwise, it would have been treated as a normal case. The reasons for custody were not clearly stated in the remand application. The accused is a young boy with no prior criminal record and is being made a scapegoat,” the defence lawyer said.
According to the defence, the accused is unaware of the case details. Hearing arguments from both sides, the court said: “The investigation is in its early stages, and the accused was arrested only today. Therefore, the grounds for seeking remand for a sufficient period of investigation are justified. The ground of illegalities in the arrest raised by the defence lawyer appears to be without sound reasoning”.
Speaking to the media after the case hearing, Shehzad’s lawyer Sandeep Shekhane said, the “angle of the case has been changed”.
“First of all, Saif Ali Khan has never made any statement or have any grievance with anyone that would create a threat for him from any state, Bangladesh or any other country. He does not have any international cases. They changed the angle of the case just… He was earlier in Bangladesh but he has been living here for many years now. Police said he has been living here for six months, which is not true. The family is in Mumbai,” Shekhane said.
The crime branch and the local police had formed multiple teams to trace the accused after the attack. The accused had eluded them for more than two days before his arrest on Sunday morning, reports said.
Political benefit
The new angle in the case in BJP-ruled Maharashtra could offer a political benefit for the party in Delhi. Analysts say the Bangladeshi angle should help the party in a desperate race to win the February 5 Delhi assembly polls.
The BJP is hoping to dislodge the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and allegations of Muslim migrants from Bangladesh being voters in the Indian capital have yielded communal dividends.
Meanwhile, Khan, 54, underwent emergency surgery at the Lilavati Hospital, where he was rushed following the incident that took place at his flat in the Satguru Sharan building. He is recovering and may be discharged soon, doctors said.
Originally published in Dawn, January 20th, 2025
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