Have no money for food, Saif attacker told roommates

Accused traced via CCTV footage, CDR, online payments; no suspect questioned prior to his arrest, shows charge sheet

Mumbai: The first persons accused Shariful Islam Shehzad met after the failed burglary attempt at actor Saif Ali Khan’s residence in Bandra on January 16 were his roommates Doublu Kumar Baleshwar Yadav and Rohit Yadav. Shariful reached the room he shared with them in Worli Koliwada around 7.30am on January 16 and Doublu Kumar was later seen withdrawing ₹1,000 from an ATM centre nearby and handing it over to him, according to the 1,600-page charge sheet submitted in the case last week by Bandra police.

Accused Shariful Islam Shehzad

The charge sheet indicates that police relied entirely on technical leads such as CCTV footage and call detail records (CDR) to trace and nab Shariful, and investigators did not question any of his accomplices or other suspects till he was arrested.

Colleagues unaware

According Doublu Kumar’s statement included in the charge sheet, he began living in the room in Worli Koliwada in September 2024. He worked as a housekeeping staff and shared the room with Rohit Yadav, his colleague. On December 25, Shariful – who went by the name of Vijay Gopal Das – moved into the room and began working under Amit Pandey, who was also Kumar and Yadav’s employer/ supervisor.

On January 16, Kumar and Yadav returned to their room around 7.30am after completing their night shifts. Shariful walked into the room minutes later and told Yadav that he was hungry, but did not have money for food.

“We noticed that Shariful had shaved his hair and beard. He told us that (Amit) Pandey had sent money for him to Yadav’s payment app. Since Yadav did not have an ATM card, he transferred the money to my account,” Kumar mentioned in his statement.

Kumar, Yadav and Shariful then went to an ATM centre in Worli’s Janata Colony, where Kumar withdrew ₹1,000 for Shariful. The trio were spotted on CCTV footage, walking together in a lane in Janata Colony, said the charge sheet.

The men then returned to their room and went to sleep. When Kumar awoke, Shariful was no longer there, he told the police.

The charge sheet includes the statement of Amit Pandey, who confirmed that he had sent ₹1,000 for Shariful to Rohit Yadav’s account after he received a call from the accused from an unidentified number. Back then, neither he, not Kumar or Yadav were aware of Shariful’s botched burglary attempt at Saif Ali Khan’s residence.

It was only on January 18 that Pandey saw photos of the person accused of attacking the actor and realised it was Shariful. He was thinking of approaching the police with this information on January 19 when he saw on the news that Shariful been arrested and learned his real name, he told the police.

Traced via CCTV, CDR

The charge sheet makes no mention of police speaking to either Kumar or Pandey before Shariful’s arrest. Instead, they relied on CCTV footage, online transaction records and call detail records to trace him.

Assistant police inspector Sandip Suresh Patil, posted at Bandra police station, said in his statement that on January 16, they handed over footage of Shariful escaping the actor’s Bandra apartment to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to run it through their facial recognition software. On January 18, the RPF informed Bandra police that the accused was seen on a motorcycle with another person on January 9, outside Andheri Railway station.

Police then traced via CCTV footage that the duo had gone to a photocopy centre that day, where the person with the accused made an online payment of ₹6. They obtained the person’s number from the shopkeeper and traced it to Pandey. They also found that on January 16, he transferred money to Doublu Kumar, who was seen on CCTV footage withdrawing money from an ATM and handing it over to the accused.

Police then went through Pandey’s call detail records and found Shariful’s number. Using this number, they subsequently traced his location to Thane and arrested him, the charge sheet says.