A key leader of a BJP ally in Maharashtra has termed the stabbing of Saif Ali Khan “fishy”, questioning the seriousness of his injuries and the police investigation and claiming he is merely voicing doubts harboured by many Mumbaikars.
Former MP Sanjay Nirupam of the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena claimed the visuals of Saif coming out of Lilavati Hospital “jumping and walking”, and the arrest of a “Bangladeshi” whose kind is “usually involved in peddling drugs”, had deepened the mystery.
“I have full sympathy for Saif and his family but the citizens of Mumbai and I have some innocent questions. We were told that it was a deadly attack, a 2.5-inch knife pierced the actor and surgery was conducted for several hours,” Nirupam told The Telegraph over the phone.
“Five days later, Saif was seen leaving the hospital jumping and walking as if nothing had happened. Is it possible to recover so fast?”
Nirupam urged the actor’s family to clear the air on how “deadly” the attack was.
Doctors who treated Saif at Lilavati Hospital have said the actor suffered injuries to his neck, shoulders, back, spine and wrist, some of them serious.
Told that his comments seemed to put the Mahayuti government and the Mumbai police in the dock, Nirupam denied this and said he was merely articulating questions being asked by the public.
Some saw political brinkmanship between allies in Nirupam’s comments. His leader Eknath Shinde, one of the two deputy chief ministers, had bargained hard for the home portfolio that would have given him control of the police but the BJP refused.
Eventually, the department stayed with Devendra Fadnavis, the man to whom Shinde also lost the chief minister’s chair. Some Shinde faction insiders conceded that Nirupam’s queries may have been prompted by the party’s rancour at being denied the home portfolio.
Nirupam wondered how the intruder could launch such an attack on the actor when — he claimed — eight members of his staff were present in the flat. Police have given contradictory accounts of how many staff members — apart from the two nannies — were in the flat.
The Sena leader asked why no CCTV footage of Saif being taken to the hospital had come out.
“The doctors told us Saif was admitted in a blood-soaked condition. But we don’t have any CCTV footage of his arrival at the hospital. Also, can a minor child take his father to the hospital under such circumstances?” Nirupam said. “The whole thing appears fishy.”
The auto driver who purportedly took an injured Saif, in “blood-soaked” clothes, to hospital has been quoted as saying the actor was accompanied by a boy — understood to be his eight-year-old son Taimur — and a young male adult.
Some reports have suggested this second person was Ibrahim, Saif’s 23-year-old son from an earlier marriage; others have said it was a staff member.
Nirupam — who began his political career in a Shiv Sena led by Bal Thackeray, defected to the Congress and later joined Shinde’s Sena — also questioned the police’s claim that the suspected assailant is a Bangladeshi.
“In three days, the police arrested three different individuals. Finally, we were told the person responsible for the attack was a Bangladeshi,” he said.
“Is the intruder really a Bangladeshi national? Bangladeshis are usually involved in peddling drugs. The police need to see whether there’s a larger conspiracy.”
According to the police, only one person has been arrested. Three others had been detained — in Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — of whom two have been released. The Madhya Pradesh suspect remains in detention.
“The police will submit the details of the case in the chargesheet but why is the Saif family silent? Why can’t the Saif family come out and answer the questions being raised by the people?” Nirupam said.
Appearing to pile pressure on Fadnavis, another Shinde faction leader, Rajya Sabha member Milind Deora, has written to the chief minister seeking a “comprehensive audit” of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants staying in Maharashtra.
“I have written a letter to the chief minister and urged that wherever any Bangladeshi is living illegally, they should be deported as soon as possible,” Deora told reporters.
He said the attack on Saif highlighted the “pressing need to address the issue of illegal immigration”.