Strong evidence against arrested Bangladeshi in Saif case: Police

Mumbai: The Mumbai police, which are investigating the attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, stated on Tuesday that they had "ample and strong evidence" against the Bangladeshi national arrested in the case.

Khan was attacked in the early hours of January 16 at his Bandra residence in Mumbai, where he was stabbed six times. On January 19, the police arrested Bangladeshi national Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla Amin Fakir alias Vijay Das from neighbouring Thane in this connection, PTI reported.

In a press conference, Additional Commissioner of Police (West Region) Paramjit Dahiya shared the development in the probe and said it was an "excellent, proof-based detection" made by the DCP Zone 9 team along with the crime branch.

"The Mumbai police have ample and strong evidence against the accused person, including documentary, physical and technical," he said.

"As for ascertaining the identity of the accused as part of collecting evidence before filing the chargesheet, the police have an option of (using the) face recognition (technology), and we will explore it," he said.

When an accused in any case gets arrested, police collect multiple pieces of evidence against him to prove his role in the crime, which includes face recognition, fingerprints, oral statements, and many others, and the investigating officer collects all the evidence before the chargesheet.

During the investigation, the police found that the accused did not have any associate with him, Dahiya said.

The police are questioning the people he was in contact with, he added.

"We have sent the samples of fingerprints to the Crime Investigation Department (CID). As of today, we have not received any official report about his fingerprints," he said.

"The arrested accused is the same (person involved in the attack). Police have oral, physical and technical evidence against him," he said, adding that the evidence will be produced before the court.

"After entering India illegally, the accused stayed in Kolkata for a few of days. The police are questioning those who helped him in Kolkata and whoever was in his contact," the official said.

When asked if the accused misled the police in the investigation, Dahiya answered in the negative.

The police have recovered a hexa blade and a knife from him, he added.

Replying to a query that Khan's admission report of the Lilavati Hospital mentions the admission time as 4.11 am, the official said the police have the CCTV footage of the hospital which shows that Khan reached the medical facility at 2.47 am.

"There is no confusion among the police about the time when the victim reached the hospital," he said.

According to him, the police have recorded the statements of the eyewitnesses in the case who were at Khan's residence when the attack took place.

Last week, Mohammad Ruhul, the father of Shariful Islam, claimed that his son was being framed in the case and that he would soon approach Bangladesh's foreign ministry and the Indian High Commission for his release.

Ruhul alleged that the man seen in the CCTV camera footage was not Shariful.

He also said his son did not have proper documentation for his stay in India and he lived in constant fear of being arrested.

A Mumbai court last week extended till January 29 the police custody of Shariful. The police informed the court that they had to conduct facial recognition of the man to ascertain if he was the person seen in the CCTV camera footage from the actor's building.

The police have recorded the statements of Khan, his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan and the house staff in connection with the attack.