Footage, fingerprints, phone data: Cops build strong case against Shariful

The charge sheet will have more than 25 witness statements, facial recognition reports, CCTV footage

MUMBAI: The Bandra police say they are building a watertight case against Shariful Islam Shehzad Fakir, the man accused of breaking into the home of actor Saif Ali Khan and stabbing him multiple times, on January 16. Citing the evidence they have gathered, they are confident the case will hold up in court.

Thane, Jan 19 (ANI): Mumbai Police arrest Bangladeshi national Mohammad Shariful Islam Shahzad name changed to Vijay Das in the Saif Ali Khan attack case, in Thane on Saturday. (ANI Photo) (ANI)

This is significant in light of the questions earlier raised about the identity of the suspect arrested for the attack on Saif. When police had arrested Shariful for the attack on Khan, images of him appeared discrepant with the CCTV image captured of the alleged attacker fleeing Satguru Sharan building, where the actor lives, soon after the attack.

Police say they are in the process of preparing the chargesheet against Shariful. They plan to file it well before deadline, the last week of March, which is 60 days since the suspect’s arrest.

Meanwhile, a forensic report has confirmed that a set of five fingerprints lifted from a duct in the building where Khan lives matches the prints of the 30-year-old Bangladeshi arrested for the crime, police sources said.

The fingerprints were lifted from the duct in Satguru Sharan building, where Khan lives with his wife, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, and their two children. The prints are important because they potentially establish his presence at the crime scene.

A criminal recreation conducted after Shariful’s arrest revealed more. The robber had noticed, while at the gate of the building, that one of the guards was asleep and the other was some distance away, he has allegedly said. Accordingly, Shariful allegedly walked into the neighbouring building and jumped over a shared wall. He then climbed into a duct that runs along the side of Satguru Sharan, and clambered to the fourth floor, emerging in a stairwell.

From here, he took the stairs to the 10th floor (It is on these stairs that a CCTV camera captured visuals of him fleeing the building after the crime). Shariful then allegedly used the duct to get to an 11th-floor balcony leading into the actors’ home. He snuck in through an open bathroom door, emerging in the bedroom of the Khans’ four-year-old son, Jehangir.

It was at this point that the child’s nurse saw him, raised the alarm and drew the attention of the Khans. When Saif confronted the thief, he was stabbed multiple times. “We had found fingerprints on the duct as it is made of metal,” a police officer said. “A set of five prints has matched Shariful’s samples.”

The chargesheet, the officer added, will contain this report as well as more than 25 eyewitness statements; positive facial recognition reports pertaining to footage from a range of CCTV cameras at the building and on the route the thief took to Worli and then Thane.

It will also detail the positive identification parade before eyewitnesses and the complainant, and a report on the suspect’s mobile phone location, which matches the trail traced in the footage and places him in this part of Bandra at the time of the attack.

Still awaited is a DNA report on the bloodstained shirt of the accused and the blood on the weapon he allegedly used to stab Khan, which were recovered from a drain on SV Road after Shariful led the police team there.

No fingerprints matching Shariful’s have been recovered from the room in which the attack occurred, or the bathroom through which he allegedly entered the house, the officer said.