Mumbai — Two days after Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan was stabbed at his home during a robbery bid, a 31-year-old suspect was on Saturday detained from a train at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh, officials said.
The man, whose photo had been shared by Mumbai Police with the Railway Protection Force (RPF), was traveling by the Jnaneshwari Express which runs between Mumbai Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to Kolkata Shalimar.
He was identified as Aakash Kailash Kannojia and a Mumbai police team would be reaching soon to take his custody, said an RPF official in Durg.
Saif Ali Khan, 54, grievously injured in the attack, was recovering well at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital and could be discharged in two-three days, according to the doctors.
Mumbai Police, who had formed 30 teams to nab the assailant and recovered CCTV footage showing a suspect’s face, informed RPF at Durg around 12.30 pm that the man was travelling by Jnaneswari Express.
RPF Durg alerted its counterpart at Rajnandgaon station (which comes before Durg on Mumbai-Howrah route) but the suspect could not be located when the train halted there, the RPF official said. He was found in the front general compartment at Durg station.
On Friday, Mumbai Police had collected CCTV footage from a mobile shop in Dadar visited by the alleged suspect following the incident.
“He purchased a pair of earphones for Rs 50,” said Hasan, who works at the shop ‘Iqra’, speaking to PTI Videos.
Saif Ali Khan was stabbed by the intruder multiple times during the incident early Thursday morning inside his 12th floor apartment at ‘Satguru Sharan’ building in the upscale Bandra West area of Mumbai.
Doctors said the Bollywood actor, who has been shifted out of the ICU, is able to walk and having normal diet.
“We are observing his progress, and he is doing excellently well according to our expectations. As per his progress, we have advised him bed rest, and if he is comfortable, then in two to three days we will discharge him,” neurosurgeon Dr Nitin Dange who operated on him had said on Friday.
Saif’s wife and actor Kareena Kapoor Khan told police in her statement that the intruder got aggressive when confronted, but did not touch jewellery kept in the open, said an official.
A senior police official said the attack seemed to be a “stray incident.” “The intruder was not working for any gang, as per the prima facie investigation. He probably was not even aware whose house he had entered,” the official added.
CCTV footage showed the suspected assailant, wearing a red scarf and carrying a backpack, scurrying down the stairs from the sixth floor of ‘Satguru Sharan’ around 2.30 am on Thursday.
Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam has said that robbery was the motive and no underworld gang was involved.
As per Dr Dange, Khan had four main wounds; two in the hand, one on the neck and “the most deep and dangerous” one in the spine.
During the surgery, the doctors removed a 2.5-inch knife fragment lodged in his spine. They noted that if the knife had gone just 2 mm deeper, it could have caused a severe injury.
Autorickshaw driver Bhajan Singh Rana, in whose vehicle the actor was rushed to the hospital, finds himself in limelight.
Rana said he was not aware that the passenger with a blood-soaked kurta was Khan, a Bollywood star and Padma Shri awardee.
He (Saif) walked into the auto. There was a seven to eight-year-old boy who also boarded the rickshaw, he said when asked if the actor’s son Taimur accompanied him to the hospital.
When we reached the hospital, he called out to the guard at the gate and told him: ‘Please bring a stretcher. I am Saif Ali Khan’, he said. — (PTI)
