New Delhi: A total of 20 teams have been constituted by the Mumbai Police to apprehend the suspect who stabbed Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan at his home in Mumbai’s posh Bandra West neighbourhood early Thursday morning. A separate team has also been formed by Mumbai Crime Branch. The teams have been assigned separate roles. Assistance of technical surveillance is being tapped. Teams have been activated based on human intelligence. The route through which the suspect escaped is being closely monitored.
‘Intruder demanded Rs 1 crore’: Nurse recounts incident to police
Eliyama Philip, a nurse caring for Saif Ali Khan’s four-year-old son Jehangir, recounted the attack incident in her statement to the police and said the man demanded Rs 1 crore when he was confronted.
She said that on Wednesday around 11pm, she fed Jehangir and put him to sleep. After that, she and Junu, another nanny, went to sleep in the same room. “On Thursday, around 2am, I heard a noise and woke up. When I got up, I saw that the bathroom door was open and the bathroom light was on. I thought that maybe Kareena madam (Saif’s wife) had come to check on Jehangir (Jaybaba), so I went back to sleep. But I felt something strange, so I woke up again.”
She saw an unknown person, wearing a cap, standing near the bathroom door. As he stepped out of the bathroom and started heading towards Jehangir’s bed, Philip said she immediately stood up and went near Jehangir’s bed. “The person put his finger on his lips, signalling me to be quiet, and said in Hindi, ‘Koi Awaaz Nahi’ (don’t make any noise),” Philip said.
When Philip tried to wake up Jehangir, the person rushed towards her. The man had a wooden stick in his left hand and in his right hand he had a long, hacksaw-like blade, Philip said.
“Amid the scuffle, he attacked me with the blade. I got hurt on my wrist. I asked him what he wants. He said he wants money and he needs Rs 1 crore,” said Philip, who has been working with the Khan couple for four years, in her statement.
‘The man attacked Saif with hacksaw-like blade’
Taking advantage of this situation, Junu, who was also awake by this time, ran out of the room and started shouting for help. Hearing her screams, Saif and Kareena came into the room. Saif asked the man who he was and what he wanted. He reiterated his demand of Rs 1 crore. The man attacked Saif with wood and the hacksaw-like blade, Philip told the cops in her statement.
During this time, another caregiver named Geeta also entered the room, and the person attacked her as well. The intruder scuffled with Saif and stabbed him multiple times. “We somehow managed to escape from the room… After that, we woke up the other staff, who were sleeping nearby,” the nurse added. When they went back, the main door was open and the intruder was gone. Saif was injured in the back of his neck, right shoulder, back, wrist of the left hand and elbow. There was a lot of blood, Philip said.
As per the complaint, the intruder was around 35 to 40 years old. CCTV footage obtained by the police showed the man escaping through the staircase. “I can identify the accused if I see him again,” Philip has said in the statement.
