Kolkata:
Shariful Islam Shehzad – the illegal migrant from Bangladesh accused of stabbing Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan last week in a home invasion – is a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, his father, Mohammed Ruhul Amin, said Friday in a telephone conversation with NDTV.
Mr Amin said his son – whom he described as 30 years old, with a “heavy” face and long hair, and insisted is not the man Mumbai Police have arrested – fled Bangladesh in March last year.
Speaking to NDTV today, he seemed to suggest Shehzad fled to escape political persecution at the hands of the then-ruling Awami League of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed in August. The BNP of ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was in the opposition then.
“My son went to India in 2024… in the last week of March or first week of April. He had only intention. For 16 years the Hasina government was in power. There were false cases… even mobile theft cases (against him). The political atmosphere was bad (and) my son felt he could not live in the country. So then, at that time, he decided to go to India (to find a job).”
The authorities – who say they have recovered Bangladeshi government documents confirming Shehzad’s nationality – believe he has since been living in India under the name Bijoy Das.
Asked if Shehzad fled because of the cases against him, Mr Amin said, “No, he did not.”
“There was (also) a lot of torture. There were cases against him for no crimes. My two sons and I work for the BNP… I hold a post and there were a lot of false cases (against me also).”
Mr Amin also insisted the man caught on CCTV cameras at Saif Ali Khan’s residence – whom the police arrested from Thane Sunday, after tracking him down thanks to a UPI payment for a paratha and some water – is not his son. “The CCTV pictures are not of my son,” he told NDTV.
“His age is 30. From an early age, his face is heavy, and he has hair on both sides (but it is short) … In the photo (the CCTV footage) the hair reaches till the eyes. That kind of hair is not my son’s. (So) no, it is not him,” he said, repeating what he told news agency IANS a day earlier.
“… my son never keeps his hair long. I believe my son is being framed,” he had said.
He also indicated then Shehzad worked in the hospitality industry; he noted the hotels in Mumbai were larger and paid better than in Bengal, or Kolkata, which led many to that belief.
And when NDTV asked him if police from India had informed him of his son’s arrest, he said: “No. No one has come. We don’t know anyone in India. We have no support there.”
A Mumbai court, this afternoon, extended police custody of Shehzad till January 29. The court said the cops needed more time to recover crucial evidence, including some of his clothing.
Like his father, Shehzad’s lawyer has been equally insistent his client is innocent, and is being made a scapegoat in response to furore over the attack on a prominent celebrity living in Bandra West – one of Mumbai’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
Saif Ali Khan suffered six stab wounds, including one near his spinal cord, in the attack, and had to be rushed into emergency surgery. He was discharged five days later and is back home.
