Mumbai Police detains key suspect in Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan stabbing incident

A person suspected to be the attacker who stabbed Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan six times on Jan 16 night at his Mumbai residence has been arrested by the Mumbai Police, sources said.

He is allegedly the same person who was caught on CCTV while fleeing the crime scene. However, Mumbai Police has yet to confirm the identity of the arrested individual.

Visuals showed the man being escorted by the cops to the Bandra police station on Jan 17 morning. However, police have not revealed his identity and it is also not confirmed if he is the same man who had broken into the actor's home and attacked him.

His arrest comes after an extensive manhunt, with multiple police teams deployed across Mumbai and adjoining areas. A police official said further investigations are ongoing.

Khan (54) was operated on after sustaining stab wounds to his spine, neck, and hands, and is out of danger, doctors said.

The accused had reportedly used the fire escape staircase to gain entry into Saif Ali Khan’s 11th-floor Bandra residence and investigations as per sources revealed that he was seen near Bandra Railway station after the attack.

Following the attack, Mumbai Police registered an FIR at the Bandra Police Station and formed 20 teams to track down the suspect. Investigators suspect that the accused had boarded a local train heading towards Vasai Virar after fleeing the crime scene.

The attacker demanded ₹ 1 crore ransom

The attacker carried a hacksaw blade and demanded ₹ 1 crore ransom before he made his escape through the fire exit staircase even after he was confined to a room by an injured Khan and a nanny.

He was first seen in the room of the actor’s younger son Jehangir by the nanny Eliyamma Philip, she told police in her statement.

There are no signs of forced entry into the actor Khan’s house, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX) Dikshit Gedam said, "It is unclear how the intruder entered the flat as there is no forceful entry. He was seen leaving the building through the fire exit staircase, it was captured on CCTV”

The man can be seen in the footage stealing a glance at the camera on his way out. Ten teams have been formed by the local Bandra police and seven teams by the crime branch to trace the suspect, he added.

According to the FIR, based on Philip's statement, while the family resides in a duplex (11th and 12th floor), the incident took place on the 11th floor, which has three rooms—one occupied by Khan and his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan, another by their son Taimur (8) and his nanny Geeta, and the third by Jehangir (4), Philip, and another nanny, Junu.

In her statement, Philip said that she and Junu put Jehangir to bed at around 11 pm on Jan 15 and went to sleep in the same room.

At around 2 am, she woke up abruptly on hearing a sound, Philip told police. She saw the room’s door was open and the bathroom light was on. She first thought Kareena had come to check on the child, she said.

“I sensed something suspicious and again woke up and sat up. I then saw the shadow of a man wearing a cap. When I tried to see who was there, I saw a person coming out of the bathroom and moving towards Jaybaba’s (Jehangir’s) bed,” Philip said in her statement.

“I immediately got up and went towards his bed. Seeing me, the man signaled me to stay quiet and said, ‘No awaaz (no sound)’. By then, Junu also woke up. The man again threatened, ‘koi awaaz nahi, aur koi bahar bhi nahi aayega’ (don’t make any sound, and nobody will go outside),” she said.

“When I asked him, ‘aapko kya chahiye (what do you want?)’, he replied, ‘paisa chahiye (I want money)’. When I asked him how much, he responded saying ‘one crore’,” she added.

According to Philip, she then tried to approach the child.

“The man marched towards me with a stick in his left hand and a hexa blade-like sharp weapon in the other hand… the intruder then entered into a scuffle with me and attacked me. As I tried to defend, my fingers on both hands and my right wrist were injured,” she said.

According to the FIR, Junu, then raised an alarm and ran out, after which Khan and Kareena came into their son’s room.

“When Saif Sir came, the accused attacked him with the Hexa blade and then also attacked Geeta, who had also come and tried to intervene,” Philip said in her statement.

Khan and Geeta somehow managed to overpower the attacker and all of them ran out of the room and shut it from outside, leaving the accused inside.

They then rushed to the upper floor of the duplex, according to the FIR.

Following the commotion, four other employees of the family also woke up. When they then went to the room in which they had left the attacker, they found the door was open and he had escaped, Philip said in her statement.

She said they later realized that the actor had “sustained injuries on his neck, back, hand and shoulder, and Geeta had injury marks on her face, wrist and back”.

The CCTV footage of the sixth-floor fire exit staircase captured the attacker’s exit at 2.33 am.

In her description of the attacker, Philip said he seemed to be in the age group of 30-35 years, and was wearing black pants, a shirt, and a cap.