The Mumbai Police teams investigating the stabbing of actor Saif Ali Khan have accessed two identity cards proving the nationality of his alleged attacker Sariful Islam, who had illegally entered India from Bangladesh last year and assumed the alias Bijoy Das.
Sariful, 30, was arrested on Saturday from Thane near Mumbai after a three-day manhunt involving at least 20 teams from the Mumbai Police. He was produced in court the next day and has been in police custody since then.
On Thursday, police officials said that while they already knew that Shariful was Bangladeshi, they have now found evidence in the form of two identity cards in his name from the country. The first is a National Identity Card which states that Shariful was born on March 3, 1994, and is the son of Mohammed Ruhul Islam.
The second document is a learner’s driver’s licence which reveals that Shariful was a resident of Barisal, a city in south-central Bangladesh. The licence was issued in November 2019 and was supposed to expire in February 2020. The date for his written, oral and practical test for a permanent licence was set for March 18, 2020.
Saif Ali Khan was stabbed six times in the early hours of January 16, allegedly by Sariful, who had entered the actor’s house in the ‘Satguru Sharan’ building in Bandra West with the intention of carrying out a theft. Sariful had demanded Rs 1 crore from the nanny of Saif’s three-year-old son Jehangir, also known as Jeh, and stabbed Mr Khan when he confronted him and grabbed hold of him.
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Police had earlier said Shariful, who has studied till class 12, had entered India through Meghalaya seven months ago and stayed in West Bengal for some time. He changed his name to Bijoy Das to avoid suspicion and used a local resident’s Aadhaar card to get a mobile phone SIM card.
The 30-year-old then decided to move to Mumbai to search for a job and initially worked in places where he was not required to produce any documents.
Sources had said that after he was caught, Shariful was asked if he was the one who had attacked Mr Khan and he had replied, “Haan, maine hi kiya hai (yes, it was me).” He will be produced in court again on Friday.
Saif Ali Khan, who suffered severe injuries – including to his spine – was discharged from Lilavati Hospital on Tuesday. The 54-year-old actor will now have a police constable staying with him around the clock and he will also use the services of a security firm run by fellow actor Ronit Roy.