The Bangladeshi national arrested by Mumbai Police for knife attack on actor Saif Ali Khan was terrified after seeing his picture on news channels and was planning to flee to his country. Police officials gave this information on Monday.
The accused has been identified as Shariful Islam Shahzad Mohammad Rohilla Amin Faqir, who changed his name to Vijay Das.
He was arrested on Sunday after a thorough investigation of CCTV footage. In the footage, he can be seen riding a motorcycle on January 9, a week before the attack.
Saif was attacked multiple times with a knife by an intruder in his Bandra house late last Wednesday night, due to which doctors at the hospital had to undergo surgery on the actor.
The incident has raised serious concerns over security at the ‘Satguru Sharan’ building, where Saif lives with his family.
As the investigation progressed, various teams of Mumbai Police scanned footage from different areas of the city to gather evidence.
Initially, the police faced challenges in locating the attacker.
Shahzad, originally from Jhalokati in Bangladesh, had been living in Mumbai for the last five months, doing odd jobs and was associated with a cleaning agency.
Officials said that with the help of advanced technology, the police identified the intruder from his picture recorded in the CCTV camera. In a footage, police saw him passing on a motorcycle at an intersection in suburban Andheri on January 9.
He said that the turning point in the investigation came when a person told the police that he was Shehzad’s former employer. Officials said that due to this the police got the mobile phone number of the suspect, from which the calls made were monitored.
There was a major breakthrough on Saturday night, when police tracked the digital payment made by the suspect at a food stall near Century Mill in Worli, where he had ordered burji pav (fried eggs with bread) and a bottle of water. .
This digital record helped police trace his whereabouts in Thane and search teams were deployed in and around the area, officials said.
Eventually, the accused was found lying on the ground in a dense mangrove area near a labor camp in Thane’s Hiranandani Estate.
Officials said that during interrogation, Shahzad told that he was nervous after seeing his picture on news channels and social media. He claimed that he was planning to flee to Bangladesh.
Officials said fingerprints collected from the ‘duct’ and toilet window at the crime scene will be matched with the fingerprints of the accused.
