Two suspects in the stabbing of actor Saif Ali Khan have been detained in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Mumbai police said on Saturday amid revelations that threw further cloud on the “robbery bid” theory.

Sources said one of the men, detained by the Railway Protection Force from Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh on Saturday evening, resembled the fleeing suspect seen in CCTV footage from Saif’s apartment building in Bandra, Mumbai.

The other suspect, held earlier in the day, is being questioned by a Mumbai police team in Madhya Pradesh, the sources said. They didn’t say why, orexactly where, he hadbeen detained.

“He (the man held in Durg) was nabbed from a general coach of the Shalimar Gyaneshwari Express train. His photo is said to have matched the appearance of the prime accused (CCTV man),” a police officer in Mumbai said.

“The final confirmation will be made after ourteam reaches Chhattisgarh and conducts furtherinterrogation.”

Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoor is seen arriving at the Lilavati Hospital, where her brother-in-law and actor Saif Ali Khan is undergoing treatment after suffering injuries in a knife attack at his home, in Mumbai, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 PTI

A man had been detained in Mumbai on Friday but was released after a few hours when the police failed to find anything against him.

While the Khan family and the police’s official statements claim the intruder came with robbery on his mind, Saturday’s statement to the police by Saif’s wife and actor Kareena Kapoor Khan has purportedly raised questions about this.

Kareena told the police the intruder had not touched the jewellery lying about in the apartment, sources said.

“The attacker was very aggressive. I saw him attack Saif repeatedly.… Our priority was to take him to hospital,” Kareena reportedly told the police.

The Bandra police have registered a case of attempted robbery, causing grievous hurt with an intention of robbery, trespass and other offences.

The intruder had sneaked into Saif’s 12th-floor flat between 2am and 2.30am, according to the police complaint by Eliyamma Philip, nanny to the actor’s youngest son, the four-year-old Jeh.

The man allegedly tried to hold Jeh and Philip hostage, demanded ₹1 crore and assaulted the nanny. Confronted by Saif, he allegedly stabbed the actor multiple times before fleeing.

Police sources quoted Kareena as saying: “Saif was trying to protect our children Taimur and Jehangir (Jeh). When the attacker failed to reach Jeh, he attacked Saif multiple times.”

Saif was rushed to Lilavati Hospital in an auto-rickshaw and underwent emergency surgery. A 2.5-inch fragment of a blade was removed from his back after five hours of surgery. He is said to be recovering well.

Several questions remain unanswered about the sequence of events.

Security camera footage shows the suspect, a red scarf around his neck, scurrying down the stairs from the sixth floor of the apartment complex around 2.33am.

It emerged on Saturday that according to the nanny’s police complaint, an injured Saif and the household staff had locked the intruder in a room. They then moved to a different room to attend to the wounds suffered by the actor and nanny Philip.

It remains a mystery how the suspect managed to escape from the room.

Another mystery is why Saif was rushed to hospital in an auto and not one of the family vehicles.

The auto driver said Saif was accompanied by a “small child” — likely to be his eight-year-old son Taimur — and a young man, who may have been Ibrahim, the actor’s son from a previous marriage.

Sources quoted Kareena as telling the police: “After the attack, I was terrified and shaken, so Karisma (her sister and actor) came and took me to her house.”

The Mumbai police have recorded the statements of more than 30 people, including a carpenter who worked at the actor’s flat two days before the incident.