Saif Ali Khan stabbed: Mumbai police gets 5-day custody of attacker, to probe international conspiracy angle

A Mumbai court remanded the alleged attacker in the Saif Ali Khan stabbing case and granted police five-day custody of the accused. The attacker, identified as Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, was arrested by police from Thane and is allegedly a Bangladeshi national.

Mumbai police produced the accused nabbed in connection with the Saif Ali Khan stabbing case at Bandra holiday court on Sunday and sought his custody. Seeking custody of the accused Mohammad Islam, police said the attacker was a Bangladeshi and they required his custody to probe whether there was any international conspiracy behind the attack.

Considering the police’s contention, the court granted cops custody of the accused till January 24. After perusing documents on record, the court said the prosecution's submission of international conspiracy "cannot be said to be impossible", PTI reported. Police said the motive behind the attack needs to be probed.

Earlier on Sunday, police told media that the alleged attacker Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad was a Bangladeshi national and he entered India illegally. He changed his name to Bijoy Das after entering the country and was nabbed from Thane, police said.

However, Islam’s lawyers denied the charges and said police have not provided any evidence to prove the alleged attacker is a Bangladesh national. They said Islam has been living in India for close to seven years and police have not recovered anything related to the crime from him.

Islam’s lawyer Sandeep Shekhane said police changed the angle of the case just because the accused was a Bangladeshi.

The attacker sneaked into Khan’s house in Satguru Sharan building in Bandra during the early hours of January 16 with the intention of theft, police had said. Khan was stabbed six times in the scuffle that broke out and he underwent multiple surgeries at Lilavati Hospital to treat his wounds.