Kolkata:
A probe into actor Saif Ali Khan’s stabbing has led Mumbai Police to question a woman in West Bengal, for allegedly providing a mobile phone SIM card to the Bangladeshi national who had entered the country illegally, and has been arrested for the attack.
Police sources said the woman, Khukumoni Sheikh, is from Chapra in Nadia district and was allegedly known to the accused Bangladeshi national, Shariful Islam.
“The SIM card the accused was using during his stay in India was traced to the woman. The woman is being questioned,” a source said.
Police had earlier said that Islam entered India through Meghalaya seven months ago and stayed in Bengal for a few weeks, before moving to Mumbai in search of a job.
Cops involved in the interrogation of the accused said the 30-year-old crossed the Dawki river, along the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, to illegally enter India. He then changed his name to Bijoy Das and began living in the country. Islam is a native of Jhalokathi district in Bangladesh, they said.
Police said that during his stay in Bengal, Islam used a local resident’s Aadhaar card to procure a mobile phone SIM card before moving to Mumbai.
“After reaching Mumbai, the accused chose to work in places where he was not required to furnish any documents. He studied till Class 12 in Bangladesh and had come to India in search of a job,” an officer had said on condition of anonymity.
On January 16, 54-year-old Khan suffered grievous injuries, after he was stabbed six times reportedly by Islam, during a failed burglary attempt at the actor’s 12th floor residence in “Satguru Sharan” building in upscale Bandra.
The doctors who performed an emergency surgery had removed a 2.5-inch piece of a broken knife from his spine afterwards. If the knife had pierced 2 mm deeper, it could have caused a severe injury, the doctors had noted. The actor was discharged from hospital and returned home on January 21.
