In a latest development in the Saif Ali Khan attack and robbery probe, the Mumbai Police was led to a West Bengal-based woman, whose SIM card was used by the accused attacker, Bangladeshi national Shariful Islam.
The woman has told the police that she lost her cellphone, an official was cited as saying by news agency PTI.
The attacker, Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla Amin Fakir, was arrested three days after he broke into Saif Ali Khan’s 12th floor apartment in the Satguru Sharan building with an intent of robbery and stabbed the actor during a scuffle with him. He is currently in police custody till January 29.
After the arrest, police found that the Bangladeshi national illegal entered India last year and used someone else’s SIM card while being here.
The investigation led the Mumbai Police team to visit Nadia and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal. Following which, they arrested Shariful.
Further, police came to know about a woman whose SIM card was used by Shariful for making calls to his home and family in Bangladeshi. A statement of the woman was recorded, wherein she claimed that she had lost her mobile phone.
An official said that police were verifying her assertion.
Shariful ‘100 per cent’ the accused
The police official further asserted that they were a “100 per cent” sure that it was Shariful who attacked Saif Ali Khan, saying that he was armed with a hacksaw blade and a knife.
In their further probe, the police teams will visit places in West Bengal where Shariful stayed after crossing over from Bangladesh.
Earlier, a report had cited Mumbai Police’s investigation and said that the accused had entered India around seven months ago by crossing the Dawki river in Meghalaya. He changed his name Bijoy Das, Vijas Das, etc., during his time in the nation.
The SIM card of the West Bengal-resident that he had used was registered under the name Khukumoni Jahangir Sekh.
Fakir had told the police that he studied till Class 12 in Bangladesh and then came to India in search of job. After spending a few weeks in Bengal, he went to Mumbai to look for job opportunities, where he deliberately picked places where could work without having to submit any documents.
Police had found out about his Bangladeshi identity while examining his call records, in which he had made several outgoing calls to Dhaka-based numbers.
Shariful was then made to call someone from his family, following which his brother sent his school leaving certificate and hence proving that the accused is a Bangladeshi national.
(with PTI inputs)
