Four male domestic helpers were inside the apartment when Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was attacked at his Bandra apartment in Mumbai, but none intervened to stop the assailant despite hearing the screams of three female workers, sources said.
One of the male workers is said to be hiding in the house, while the others are left in the grip of fear, they said. Instead, it was the quick thinking of the housemaids who managed to lock the accused, Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, in the room after the attack, the sources added.
According to sources, Shehzad, who is believed to be from Bangladesh, climbed to the tenth floor of the building using a ladder, descended to the eleventh floor through a drain pipe and entered the apartment through a bathroom that did not have safety bars.
The bathroom was inside the bedroom, allowing him to go inside the house. After the attack on Saif Ali Khan, Shehzad was locked in a room by the female staff, but went back, escaped through the same bathroom and down to the tenth floor through a pipe before escaping, sources said.
The attack took place on January 16 when Shehzad reportedly entered the house with the intention of stealing. However, the situation escalated when he was seen by the housekeeper in the room of Saif’s youngest son, Jeh.
The staff raised the alarm, forcing Saif to confront the thief. During the altercation, the actor was stabbed several times including a serious wound near the spine.
Saif was rushed to Lilavati Hospital in an autorickshaw, where he underwent emergency surgery to stop the spinal fluid leak and to remove the knife lodged in his back. Doctors have said that Saif is stable and is expected to be discharged soon.
Kareena Kapoor Khan, in her statement to the police, confirmed that the robber got angry during the fight but did not touch the jewelry that was left in the open.
Shehzad was arrested on January 20 from a labor camp in Thane. Documents seized by the police revealed that he had entered India illegally and was using several aliases, including Bijoy Das, Vijay Das and Mohammad Illyas.
Before he was caught, police released CCTV footage of the suspect walking down the stairs in Saif’s building, helping him in his identification and arrest. The court remanded Shehzad to police custody for five days, and he is currently being held at the Bandra police station.