‘Saif attacker’ tag costs Colaba resident his job, marriage

Kanojia was travelling from Mumbai to Bilaspur to meet his prospective bride when he was detained by railway protection force officers at Durg railway station.

MUMBAI: An erroneous alert by Mumbai police has cost 31-year-old Akash Kailash Kanojia his job as well as his marriage, the Colaba resident told Hindustan Times.

Akash Kanojia (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

Kanojia was travelling from Mumbai to Bilaspur by Jnaneswar Express on January 17 to meet his prospective bride when he was detained by railway protection force (RPF) officers at Durg railway station. This was after Mumbai police alerted the RPF, saying he was the person behind the foiled burglary attempt at actor Saif Ali Khan’s apartment in Bandra West on January 16.

“The RPF personnel not only apprehended me, they also issued a press release with my photograph, which was shown widely by television channels and media outlets. As a result, the bride’s family cancelled the meeting with me and my employer terminated my services,” Kanojia said.

Kanojia was employed as a driver with a tour company which works with Western Railway in Mumbai. On January 17, he received a call from Mumbai police, who asked him where he was. When he told the officer that he was at home, the latter disconnected the call, he said.

“The next day, I boarded Jnaneswari Express from Mumbai hoping to visit my ailing grandmother in our native place Nehla in Chhattisgarh. I was supposed to change trains in Bilaspur to go to Nehla and was slated to meet the family of my prospective bride later,” he told HT.

At around 10am on January 18, when Jnaneswari Express reached Durg junction, RPF personnel detained him on suspicion of being the attacker and took him to Raipur. The Mumbai police team reached there almost twelve hours later and told him that he would be brought back to the city the following day for further investigation.

“I told the police that I had nothing to do with the attack on Saif Ali Khan and offered to make them speak with my relatives. I also told them that they could check footage from CCTVs installed near my house to clarify their doubts. But they did not pay any heed – instead, they took my photos and circulated them in the media, claiming I was the attacker,” said Kanojia.

However, on the night of January 18, police nabbed Shariful Islam Shehzad, an alleged Bangladeshi national, from Thane, claiming that he was the one who had broken into the actor’s residence with the intention of committing a robbery.

The next morning, police officials released Kanojia and told him that he was free to proceed to his grandmother’s place. He urged them to take him to Mumbai as he apprehended that they might follow his trail and question him in front of his family members and relatives. But his plea was turned down.

“When I spoke to my mother (in Mumbai) after being released, she seemed very worried as my photo had been shown on all news channels and asked me to return home immediately. The next day, when I called my employer, he asked me to stop reporting for work, saying, ‘You are in legal trouble and I don’t want to get into trouble because of you’. I tried explaining the matter to him but he wasn’t willing to hear me out,” said Kanojia.

Around this time, he also received a call from his grandmother, who told him that the family of his prospective bride had refused to go ahead with the marriage proposal after seeing his photo on news channels.

“After what has happened, I am not sure if I will be able to get married in future,” he said.

Things were looking good for his family after a long time, but his detention has changed all that, he rued.

“My brother died some time back after prolonged medical treatment, for which we had to sell whatever we had, including our house in Virar. My father’s garage in Colaba was also shut down after somebody cheated him of ₹9 lakh and fled the country,” said Kanojia, who is an accused in a drug-related case and a theft case. “I hope the courts will eventually clear me of all the charges,” he said.

Although the damage is done, Kanojia wants all photos identifying him as the attacker pulled down from the internet and has approached a lawyer for the same, though he can ill afford any expenses.

“The police failed to notice a simple thing – that I have moustache, while the person captured in CCTV cameras installed in Saif Ali Khan’s building did not have one. Yet. I had to go through this ordeal,” he told HT.