Actor Saif Ali Khan suffered multiple deep-stab injuries when he confronted an intruder who had sneaked into his 12th-floor apartment in upscale Bandra early on Thursday and tried to hold his four-year-old son Jeh and a nanny hostage, demanding ₹1 crore, sources said.

The narrative around the truth of the multiple stab wounds inflicted on Saif has, as we shall see, multiple holes where lie questions yet unanswered.

Saif, 54, suffered injuries to his neck, shoulders, back, spine and wrist and had to undergo surgeries to remove the knife, lodged near his spine, the doctors treating him at Lilavati Hospital said. They said he was out of danger.

“He sustained a major injury to the thoracic spinal cord due to a lodged knife in the spine. Surgery was performed to remove the knife and repair the leaking spinal fluid,” Nitin Dange, one of the doctors who operated on Saif, said.

“There were two other deep wounds on his left hand and the right side of the neck, which were repaired by the plastic surgery team. He is completely stable now and may be discharged in a day or two.”

The incident has sent a shiver down the film fraternity’s spine. Bandra — home to Bollywood bigwigs such as Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Ananya Panday, Farhan Akhtar and
Saira Banu — has in recent months witnessed several attacks on celebrities.

According to the FIR registered at Bandra police station on a statement from one of Jeh’s two nannies, the attack took place between 2am and 2.30am when the family and staff were asleep. Sources said the intruder had, carrying a sharp knife, entered the bedroom where Jeh and Eliyama Philip, caretaker and nurse for Jeh, slept.

Philip said she had woken around 2am after hearing a sound and found the bathroom light on. “I sat up to see who was in the bathroom when I saw a short, thin man come out and move towards Jeh’s bed. I immediately stood up,” she said in her statement.

The man pointed a finger at her and said in Hindi: “Koi awaaz nahi (Don’t make any sound).”

“I still walked towards Jeh to wake him up. The man had a wooden stick in his left hand and in his right hand he had a long, hacksaw-like blade. He rushed towards me,” Philip, who has been working with the Khans for four years, said in her statement.

“In the scuffle, he attacked me with the blade. I got hurt on my wrist. I asked him what he wanted. He said he wanted money and he needed ₹1 crore.”

The nanny raised the alarm, and Saif and Kareena rushed in. “The intruder attacked Saif. All the other staff of the house too came running,” the statement said.

Phillip and the others ran out of the room in panic as the intruder scuffled with Saif. When they came back, the main door was open and the intruder was gone. Saif was injured and there was a lot of blood, Philip said. According to the complaint, the intruder was 35 to 40 years old.

Saif lives on the 12th floor of the Satguru Sharan Apartments.Police sources said the investigators were treating the incident as a case of armed robbery and assault, and the possible role of an insider was being looked into.

“It seems to be an attempted robbery gone wrong,” a police officer said, adding that the nanny, who is in her mid-50s and had suffered injuries, had been discharged from hospital.

Deputy commissioner Dixit Gedam said the police had identified the attacker and launched a search. “It appears a robbery attempt. The incident took place post-midnight when the accused entered Saif Ali Khan’s house. The accused used the fire escape to gain access to the house,” he told reporters.

“The accused has been identified and 10 teams are currently working on the case.”

Multiple theories swirled in the air. Some police sources said CCTV footage from two hours before the incident did not show anyone entering the housing society, nor did the security guard witness any unauthorised entry.

Despite Gedam and Saif’s family calling it an attempted robbery, officers said they were probing all angles.

A police officer said: “It seems the intruder knew someone who let him in as the building is a well-guarded gated society with CCTV cameras recording movement round the clock.”

Some sources, however, said CCTV footage had traced the intruder to the sixth floor of the building. Some suggested the suspect had been inside the building for several hours before the assault. The police are questioning five of Saif’s staff members as well as some labourers involved in the renovation of the housing society. A forensic team has collected evidence.

Police sources said six people — Saif, wife Kareena Kapoor Khan, their sons Taimur and Jeh, and the two nannies were in the flat at the time of the incident. Other staff lived in an adjacent flat. Some media reports quoting police sources suggested the attack was premeditated.

Some suggested that a bleeding Saif had been rushed to Lilavati Hospital by his eldest son Ibrahim, who lives nearby, in an auto-rickshaw. The hospital is around 2km from Saif’s home. Other reports said that other family members and staff took him to hospital.

The story, still evolving as we go to press, is riddled with intriguing questions.

n How did the intruder manage to get access to the Saif-Kareena residence which, arguably, would be well-protected and under surveillance? Was there an insider who let him in?

n Why did such a heinous assault on a Bollywood star not shake up the entire apartment block, if not the neighbourhood? It is tough to believe no driver was at hand and Ibrahim had to summon an autorickshaw to ferry his father to Lilavati Hospital.

n If Kareena was at home, as claimed much later in the day, why was she not able to arrange swift transfer of her husband to hospital?

n Why did Team Kareena only mention an injury to Saif in the arm in their statement, when he had been stabbed multiple times including in the spinal region?

A media statement from “Team Kareena Kapoor Khan” said: “There was an attempted burglary in Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan’s residence last night. Saif had an injury on his arm for which he is in the hospital, undergoing a procedure. The rest of the family is doing fine.”

The statement urged the media not to speculate and added: “We request media and fans to be patient and not speculate any further as the police are already doing their due investigations.”

The statement only mentioned an injury to Saif’s arm in contrast to the multiple injuries cited by the doctors who had operated on him. Earlier in the day, Saif’s team had issued a statement, saying: “There was an attempted burglary at Saif Ali Khan’s residence. He is currently in hospital undergoing surgery. We request the media and fans to be patient. It is a police matter. We will keep you updated on the situation.”

Saif, who has featured in more than 70 films and television series, is the son of former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore. He and his wife Kareena are one of Bollywood’s most well-known couples.

Saif has two children, Ibrahim and Sara Ali Khan, from a previous marriage. Sara too is a Bollywood actor.

The incident has again brought Bandra’s security under the scanner. In July last year, shots were fired outside Salman Khan’s home. Three months later, NCP leader Baba Siddiqui, known to be a close friend of Salman, was shot dead outside his son’s office in Bandra.

In a post on X, Shiv Sena (UBT) parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi cited these attacks and said: “All in Bandra. An area which has the highest concentration of celebrities, which is supposed to have adequate security. If celebrities are not safe, then who in Mumbai is?”