With nearly 35 key witness accounts 25 CCTV footage matches and ‘indisputable’ forensic evidence, Mumbai police has claimed to have filed a ‘strong’ chargesheet against Bangladeshi national Mohammed Shariful Fakir Islam, 30, who is accused of attacking Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan on January 16 at his residence in Bandra (West).
The Bandra police submitted an over 1600-page chargesheet on Tuesday against Shariful, who was arrested from a labour camp in Thane on January 19.
The police have included reports of the facial recognition test conducted by the forensic laboratory in the chargesheet. “We had sent around 300 CCTV footages to the FSL and out of that 25 footages matched with the face of the accused,” said a police source.
The CCTVs include cameras from inside Khan’s building, cameras installed around Khan’s building, at Bandra Railway station and CCTVs from Dadar and Worli, where he had gone after the crime.
Besides CCTVs, the police have also claimed to have included his mobile phone location, and the IPDR (internet protocol details report) to prove the accused’s role and presence in the area at the time of the incident. Shariful had spoken to his family using mobile data to call from a messaging app.
Police have also attached the DNA test report and fingerprints report establishing Shariful’s presence at Khan’s house and in his building.
Forensic experts have also established the piece of knife retrieved from Khan’s back to be the same knife which was collected from Shariful’s bag, retrieved from the place he had dumped it in Bandra.
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Police have also included technical evidence proving Shariful’s presence in the Bandra area as he worked at a hotel near Khan’s building for a few days. After being sacked from the Bandra hotel, Shariful roamed the area and observed its topography, another police officer said.
The chargesheet also includes a Test Identification Parade (TIP) in which eyewitnesses including Khan’s son’s nanny Elliamma Philip, who is also the complainant in the case, identified Shariful as the attacker.
Police have also added sections of the Passport Act as Shariful failed to produce any document proving Indian nationality. Police have established that he is a Bangladeshi national.
Shariful is currently being held at Arthur Road Central Jail. His lawyer has already applied for his bail and the matter is scheduled before court on April 17.
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Police have also submitted details of the crime’s reconstruction in which Shariful explained how he climbed a four-feet wall, using a ladder for the 12-feet ascent to the duct, accessing the fourth floor, using the stairs to the tenth floor, and then climbing through duct pipes to enter the flat’s bathroom. He said he used the same route to escape and had to jump from the first floor as he didn’t find the ladder in its place.
The attack
On January 16, Shariful, who was carrying a knife and a stick, first hid in the bathroom and was confronted by the nanny Philip. During the argument he demanded “(Rs) one crore”. Following which he had a scuffle with Philip. Seeing this, the other nannies screamed for help, following which the actor, who was in the upper floor of their duplex, came downstairs and confronted Shariful. During the brief confrontation, Shariful stabbed the actor six times. After that, others in the house managed to lock Shariful inside a room and escaped upstairs to the 12th floor. However, the door wasn’t locked and Shariful managed to flee. While an injured Khan was rushed to Lilavati hospital, police launched a massive manhunt and, three days later, Shariful was arrested from a Thane labour camp.