MUMBAI: The sheer randomness of the attack on the Saif Ali Khan household was underscored by the suspect’s alleged confession to police that he had tried to break into another flat in the same building before he entered the actor’s house on the 11th floor. Khan occupies four floors at the top of the 13-storey Sadguru Sharan building. The attempted break-in at the other flat proved unsuccessful, which then prompted him to enter Khan’s house through the duct.
The out-of-work Shariful had done a recce on Dec 31, 2024, departing from the Worli-Koliwada staff room where he was temporarily staying for a New Year’s night walk. He arrived at Bandra station and hired an autorickshaw to explore areas in Bandra and Khar until the following morning. “He even inquired with the rickshaw driver, whom he hired, to take him to the locality that houses businessmen and celebrities. After studying the topography, he planned to strike on Jan 15 night,” said police.
At midnight on Jan 16, Shariful arrived at Bandra station and chose to walk rather than use public transport, he told police. He walked for almost two hours starting from Bandra to Khar and finally reached Satguru Sharan where Khan lives with his actress-wife Kareena Kapoor Khan and family. Shariful walked through several bylanes in Khar to avoid being captured on CCTV cameras and finally reached the actor’s 13-storey building. He told cops he found it plush enough and decided to strike.
He entered the building after jumping over a four-feet wall of the adjacent building premises. The watchman at Satguru Sharan was snoozing. He used a ladder lying in the building premises to climb 12 feet to reach a duct from where he climbed using the pipeline. Since the duct was covered with a pigeon mesh on the fourth floor, he got out of it and entered the fire escape stairwell and climbed up to the 10th floor. This was when his image was captured (face covered with a scarf) in the only CCTV camera on the sixth floor. On the 10th floor, he again entered the duct to climb into the actor’s flat from the bathroom window,” said a police officer.
Investigations showed that after fleeing the actor’s 11th floor apartment in Satguru Sharan building at 2.30 am on Jan 16, he jumped 12 feet from the first-floor level to the ground floor to escape. By then, there was a commotion in the actor’s household. The intruder who was spotted by a maid outside the actor’s son’s bedroom had raised an alarm, which led to a confrontation and a fight with Khan and his domestic staff. They had attempted to lock up the intruder in a room but failed to secure the door. After the family rushed downstairs to seek help, the intruder had fled. “The victims thought they had locked the door but it was the intruder who seems to have locked it from inside before he escaped from the fire escape stairwell which was captured in the CCTV,” said the police.
