Employer of Saif Ali Khan’s alleged assailant reveals in statement how accused came to work for him and how his cover was blown
Shariful Islam Shehzad, immediately after his arrest at Hiranandani Estate, Thane, early on January 19. Pic/Diwakar Sharma
A digital payment of Rs 6 at an Andheri West photocopying centre by the employer of Bangladeshi national Shariful Islam Shehzad, who stabbed actor Saif Ali Khan at his Bandra flat on January 16, helped Mumbai police trace his hideout in Thane’s Hiranandani Estate, revealed the charge sheet filed in Bandra court.
The Mumbai Police, who had been desperately hunting for the masked man, got a hint after the intruder’s CCTV grab at Satguru Sharan building matched with the facial recognition system (FRS) at Andheri railway station. The investigators then came across footage from Andheri West of January 9, in which he was seen riding pillion with a person.
The cops retrieved the details of the motorcyclist and the biker was identified as Amit Pandey, who had hired Shehzad as a member of his housekeeping staff. The investigating team then showed a CCTV grab of the attacker to Pandey who identified him as Vijay Das.
After retrieving the mobile number of the attacker, the police traced Das to Hiranandani where he was hiding behind a barracks. Though the charge sheet revealed that Shehzad had entered Saif’s Bandra flat to demand Rs 1 crore, there is no detailed description of how he entered the apartment on January 16. The attacker was captured in the CCTV footage in which he was seen ascending the building’s stairs at 1.37 am and then descending at 2.37 am.
According to the charge sheet, the accused was seen coming out of the compound of the Bharti Villa building in CCTV footage at 3.37 am on January 16. But none got a whiff of his whereabouts. A large team of Bandra police reached the crime spot and inspected the area that was cordoned off for gathering pieces of crucial evidence scattered on the floor at the flat.
“The crime scene was examined with the help of a forensic mobile van, fingerprint experts and a dog team. In terms of evidence, 29 specimens such as a piece of knife blade, blood samples lying on the spot, blood stained pillow cover, blood stained mattress cover, blood stained load cover, blood stained cotton pad, blood stained tissue paper, plain sample of cotton cloth have been recovered from the scene (sic),” revealed the charge sheet.
Pandey’s statement
Pandey told Bandra police that he works as a supervisor in Shree Om Facility Services, a housekeeping manpower agency. He met Shehzad in November 2024. “The said agency also works to place the people coming to work in hotels at various places as per their requirement. In July 2024 one person came to me asking for housekeeping work in the acquaintance Name Vishal (full name not known) working in our agency. He told his name as Vijay Das (sic). At that time, I asked him for his Aadhaar card and other documents and he said that he would give them later. After about two days, I hired him as a housekeeper in a pub located at Worli Koliwada, where he provided accommodation with other men working in our agency. Vijay worked at the pub for four months,” Pandey said.
“Vijay worked at Bandra till January 13. After that, I got information that he did not come to work for two to three days. At that time, I tried to call him repeatedly. But Vijay's phone was going off. Then on January 16 around 11 am I got a call from an unknown mobile number. He told me that Vijay Das was talking, about why I didn't come to work for two days. When asked about this, he told me that while coming to work, he had a fight with a person on the train at Mahim,” Pandey added.
“Vijay told me that because the person was a policeman, he took him to the police station and locked him up. On the same day around 7.30 pm Vijay called me from the phone of a person called Rohit Yadav, who lives in our agency, Worli Koliwada, and said that he did not need money for food and drink. He asked me to send Rs 1000. I transferred the money. At the time, I instructed Rohit to go to work regularly. But I learnt that Vijay did not go to work that day also. When I inquired about Vijay from the other guys at work, I was informed that he was not even in the room.”
“On the night of January 18, while I was watching TV at home, I saw the news about the attack on actor Saif Ali Khan. After seeing the face of the suspect and the shirt he was wearing, I realised that he was Vijay. I tried to contact him repeatedly but when I could not get through to him, I decided to report the matter to the police. But the next day I learnt from the TV that he was caught by the police,” he added. “When the police called me and questioned me, I learned his real name is Mohammad Shariful Sajjad Rohool Amin Fakir and he is a citizen of Bangladesh,” Pandey stated.
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