Man who stabbed Saif Ali Khan at his Mumbai residence arrested

The man, who assaulted actor Saif Ali Khan at his Mumbai residence, has been arrested from Thane this morning, police said. The accused, 30-year-old Mohammad Shariful Islam Shahzad was caught near Hiranandani Estate in Kasarvadavali, about 35 km from Saif’s residence.

Saif Ali Khan was stabbed multiple times, on his neck and near the spine, when the intruder entered his Bandra home in the wee hours of Thursday.

"Investigation has revealed that he went to Saif's house with the intention of theft. It seems the accused is a Bangladeshi," said senior police official Dixit Gedam at a press conference after his arrest.

"He does not have any Indian documents. Some things have been recovered from him which show that he is a Bangladeshi," he added.

Gedam said the accused had been in Mumbai for the past four months and had changed his name to Bijoy Das. He used to work with a housekeeping company, he said.

Saif Ali Khan was stabbed six times and was taken to Lilavati Hospital in an autorickshaw where he underwent emergency surgery. A 2.5-inch piece of the blade was removed from his spine after a five-hour-long surgery.

The 54-year-old actor is recovering well, said doctors on Friday.

Earlier on Saturday, a suspect - 31-year-old Aakash Kailash Kannojia from Mumbai - was detained at Chhattisgarh’s Durg railway station. "caught from the Mumbai-Howrah Jnaneswari Express on the lead of the Mumbai Police."

“Around 2 pm, when the train reached Durg, the suspect - who was sitting in the general compartment - deboarded and was immediately taken into custody. He is being interrogated," said Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials.

"The Mumbai Police had sent the suspect's photo, train number, and location to the RPF, after which he was caught," they said.

Sources said the detained passenger looks like the suspect in the Saif Ali Khan stabbing case.

Saif Ali Khan Attacked At His Mumbai Home

Saif Ali Khan was attacked when he was with his family - wife Kareena Kapoor Khan and their two sons Jeh (4) and Taimur (8) at his 12th-floor apartment Satguru Sharan in Bandra.

Eliyama Philip, the nurse who was taking care of Jeh, and another staffer were also injured in the attack.

In her statement to the police, Ms Philip said she was the first to see the intruder (35-40 yrs old) at Mr Khan's 11th-floor apartment.

She said the attacker also demanded a ransom of 1 crore.

The 56 year old said she was woken up by the noises in the house around 2 am - three hours after Jeh had gone to sleep. She told the police she had gone to check on Jehangir who was asleep. She said she saw the bathroom door was open and the light was on and thought Ms Kapoor Khan was checking on her younger son.

"... then I went back to sleep but, again, I realised something was wrong. So I woke up again and saw a man come out of the bathroom and go into the boy's room.”

"I quickly got up and went to Jeh's room. The attacker then put his finger near his mouth and said ‘Don't make any noise, nobody will go out’ in Hindi," Ms Philip said.

“When I rushed to pick up Jeh, the man - who was armed with a wooden stick and a long Hexa blade - ran towards me and tried attacking me,” she said.

"Saif Sir somehow managed to get away from him and we all ran out of the room and pulled the door of the room," she said."We all then went to the upper floor of the house."

He managed to get away, she said.