MUMBAI: Legal experts on Monday asked why Mumbai police had not yet invoked the offence of attempt to murder separately against actor Saif Ali Khan’s alleged assailant Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammed Rohilla Amin Fakir alias Bijoy Das.
“The police can surely add the section under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) even if it has invoked dacoity with an attempt to kill since, going by the allegations of the six stab injuries on Saif Ali Khan, the offence is prima facie attracted,” senior advocate Pranav Badheka said.
The accused was booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 311 (robbery, or dacoity, with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 312 (attempt to commit robbery or dacoity when armed with a deadly weapon), and 331 (4) (6) (7) (house-trespass).
Later on, sections under the Foreigners Order, 1948, under the Foreigners Act, 1946, were also added as the police said Shariful Fakir was a Bangladeshi national.
Badheka said Section 109 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita could well be attracted and invoked by Mumbai police. Since the account of the attack, as seen in media reports, shows the grievous injury caused by the persistent stabbing in the neck and spine areas with the weapon left stuck in the spine, it was suggestive of the injury being serious and “major” as the doctors said and ought to have been considered by the police to invoke the attempt to murder offence.
Section 109 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita makes it an offence of attempt to murder if anyone “does any act with such intention or knowledge, and under such circumstances that, if he by that act caused death, he would be guilty of murder, shall be punished with 10 years’ imprisonment, and if the victim is hurt, the offender shall be liable either to imprisonment for life or to 10 years.”
Senior advocate Satish Maneshinde said the police ought to invoke the attempt to murder offence in the case, as ordinarily no burglar would stab so many times. The sheer number of stab injuries and major injuries — half a dozen — is indicative or suggestive of an attempt to kill. Both lawyers and even others practising criminal law said there was also a need to add attempt to murder in the case because, if for some reason the charge of robbery is not sustained, the case may fall flat.
