Mumbai, Jan 17: Police are questioning a carpenter in connection with the knife attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan at his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra, while a Maharashtra minister on Friday ruled out underworld link to the stabbing incident.
The 54-year-old filmstar is recovering well at Lilavati Hospital, where he was taken after the brutal attack by an intruder in the early hours of Thursday that left him with multiple wounds, and is expected to be discharged in two to three days, doctors treating him said.
According to an official, the carpenter, identified as Waris Ali Salmani, was picked up and taken to the Bandra police station for questioning after he resembled the intruder who stabbed Khan in his 12th floor apartment during a robbery attempt.
The attacker’s face was clearly captured in CCTV footage which surfaced on Thursday. The video showed the assailant, wearing a red scarf and carrying a backpack, scurrying down the stairs from the sixth floor of the ‘Satguru Sharan’ building, where Khan lives, at around 2.30 am.
Salmani had worked at the actor’s flat two days before the incident and was informed about the attack by the contractor who had hired him for the carpentry assignment, the official said.
Hours after questioning, police took him to an undisclosed location, he said.
A second official, speaking on condition of anonymity, however, said the man brought to the police station for questioning was not related to the attack on Khan.
No one has been arrested yet, he said, adding more than 30 teams have been formed to track down and nab the attacker, who is said to be aged between 35 and 40 years.
Maharashtra Minister of State for Home (Urban) Yogesh Kadam said robbery was the motive behind the incident and clarified no underworld gang was involved in the knife attack.
The actor, who suffered multiple stab injuries, including in his neck, underwent an emergency surgery at Lilavati Hospital, where he was rushed in an autorickshaw.
Meanwhile, autorickshaw driver Bhajan Singh Rana, in whose vehicle the actor was rushed to the hospital, is hogging media limelight and is being hailed as a hero.
Rana said he was not aware that the passenger with blood-soaked ‘kurta’ he ferried to Lilavati Hospital was popular actor Khan, a Padma Shri awardee and recipient of several other honours.
“It was only when we reached the hospital gate that he called the guard to fetch a stretcher, saying he was Saif Ali Khan,” the auto driver told reporters.
Rana said when he was passing by the building where the actor stayed, a woman and a few others asked him to stop the rickshaw.
“Then the person whose white kurta was soaked in blood got in the auto. I noticed he had neck and back injuries, but did not notice the hand injury,” he said.
“He (Saif) walked into the auto. There was a seven-eight year old boy who also boarded the rickshaw,” he said, when asked if the actor’s son Taimur accompanied him to the hospital.
The earlier plan was to go to the Holy Family Hospital in Bandra, but then Khan asked to be taken to Lilavati Hospital, the driver said.
“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, adding the auto reached the hospital around 3 am.
A new video surfaced on Friday showing the attacker going upstairs in the actor’s building with his face covered and carrying a bag. He was captured in CCTV cameras cautiously climbing the stairs at 1.37 am before intruding into the actor’s house.
