Hours before dawn on Thursday, auto-rickshaw driver Bhajan Singh Rana heard urgent calls for help. Some people were shouting, “Rickshaw roko (Stop the rickshaw).”

Moments later, he was ferrying a man in a blood-soaked kurta to Lilavati Hospital in Bandra, unaware that it was Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan.

Rana told reporters on Friday he was near the Satguru Sharan building, where Saif lives with his family, when he “suddenly heard a woman and some others shouting, asking me to stop the vehicle”.

“I stopped immediately and a man in a blood-soaked white kurta got in. I noticed he had neck and back injuries…. He was badly injured but remained composed,” he said.

Asked whether the actor’s son Taimur had accompanied him to hospital, Rana said: “A seven-year-old boy and another young man were with him. He was talking to the boy.”

Taimur is eight. Media reports have said Ibrahim Ali Khan, 23-year-old son of Saif and his first wife Amrita Singh, had accompanied the actor to hospital.

Rana said the wounded passenger had asked him: “Kitna time lagega (How long will it take)?”

He said he had first been told to go to Holy Family Hospital in Bandra but Saif later changed his mind and asked to be taken to Lilavati Hospital.

Rana said he drove swiftly and reached the hospital within 10 minutes, where he learnt the identity of his wounded passenger.

A fresh grab of the suspected assailant. Late on Friday, the Bandra police recorded the statement of actor and Saif's wife Kareena Kapoor Khan, on Thursday morning's stabbling at their residence. Sourced by The Telegraph

“It was only when we reached the hospital gate that he (Saif) called the guard to fetch a stretcher, saying he was Saif Ali Khan.”

Rana said he refused to accept the fare.

Mumbai police on Friday took possession of the 2.5-inch fragment of a hacksaw blade that had got lodged in Saif’s back and had to be extracted surgically.

The police ruled out the involvement of any underworld gang in what they continued to officially describe as a robbery bid. Officers said the insider angle was being considered too.

“A probe is on to recover the remaining portion of the weapon. We have formed 20 teams to track the intruder,” an officer said.

Police sources said CCTV footage from Saif’s apartment building showed a man in a brown shirt, face covered with a red scarf, tiptoeing upstairs around 1.37am on Thursday.

Another piece of footage, they said, showed the man, armed with a wooden stick and a long hacksaw blade, scurrying down the stairs from the sixth floor. The footage showed 2.33am as the time. The man’s face is clearly visible, his red scarf tied round his neck.

So far, there’s no footage of the attacker’s entry into the building, officers said.

Questions

It remains unclear how the intruder managed to sneak into the well-guarded housing society. A preliminary probe has revealed the society’s security guard did not notice any unauthorised entry.

Nor is it clear how the intruder navigated the building undetected and gained access to the bedroom of Saif’s younger son, four-year-old Jeh, as alleged by his nanny.

Police sources said the way the intruder moved freely about and avoided detection by most of the CCTV cameras, including one at the entrance, suggests he was familiar with the building’s layout or received inside help.

“We suspect that he first climbed over the back gate to enter the premises. Thereafter, he took the fire escape till some point,” an officer said.

“He is suspected to have used a shaft to enter the bathroom of Saif’s younger son (Jeh) from where he gained entry into the apartment,” he added without elaboration.

It’s also unclear why Saif was taken to hospital by Ibrahim, who lives nearby, in an auto-rickshaw and not in one of the family cars. The family had called Ibrahim immediately after the attack.

The police complaint by nanny Eliyamma Philip claims she was the first to spot the intruder, having been woken by a noise. The man allegedly tried to hold Jeh and Philip hostage and demanded ₹1 crore before assaulting the nanny. When Saif confronted the intruder, he was stabbed multiple times.

The police have said Saif, wife Kareena Kapoor and their sons Taimur and Jeh, two nannies and three domestic workers were in the flat during the attack.