Father of Bollywood stabbing suspect says he plans to fight ‘false arrest’
The father of a suspected Bangladeshi illegal migrant accused of stabbing Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has claimed his son is being framed in a false case because he is an easy target.
Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad was arrested by the Mumbai police on Sunday for attempted burglary and stabbing of Mr Khan.
The actor, 54, underwent surgery after sustaining six stab wounds during an early morning break-in at his home in an upscale Mumbai neighbourhood on 16 January. He has since been released from hospital.
Mr Shehzad’s father, Mohammad Rohul Amin, who lives in Jhalokhathi in southern Bangladesh, told The Times of India newspaper that he will seek to raise the false arrest of his son as a “diplomatic issue” with India.
Relations between Dhaka and Delhi have soured lately over the extradition of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in India since her government was toppled by a street agitation last August.
“We may be poor but we are not criminals,” Mr Amin told the newspaper.
Mr Shehzad rode a bike taxi to earn a living in Bangladesh, his father said.
“They have arrested my son as a suspect but he is not the one whose photographs the police had released after the incident,” he said. “They have picked him up as he has some similarities to the suspect.”
Mr Amin, a village-level functionary for the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said his son was an easy target because he had entered India illegally, like hundreds of his fellow countrymen looking for work.
He son had fled to find “better earning and living prospects” after the situation in their village turned volatile last year following the return of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party to power.
“Since my son was an active supporter of Khaleda Zia,” Mr Amin said, referring to the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, “he faced immense backlash and decided to leave Bangladesh for better earning and living prospects.”
Mr Shehzad contacted an “agent” who helped him cross the border illegally and find work, first in West Bengal and then Mumbai, his father said.
Mr Amin said his son wasn’t the man seen in surveillance footage from Mr Khan’s house released by police last week. For one, he said, Mr Shehzad always wore his hair short, unlike the man in the footage with long hair.
Mr Amin’s statement, however, contradicts Mr Shehzad’s lawyer Sandeep Shekhane’s claim that his client is not a Bangladeshi.
“The police have no proof that he is a Bangladeshi,” the lawyer said.
“They said he came here six months ago. It’s a wrong statement. He has been living here for more than seven years.”
A Mumbai court on Friday extended Mr Shahzad’s police custody by five days until 29 January.
Mr Shekhane protested the decision saying there is no need to keep Mr Shehzad in custody except the “matter has been hyped” in the media.
The attack on Mr Khan made headlines beyond India and raised questions about safety in Mumbai, one of the country’s most populated cities and its financial capital.
Mr Khan is the son of the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, a former Indian cricket captain, and Sharmila Tagore, an actress. He belongs to an erstwhile royal family and holds the ceremonial title of the 10th Nawab of Pataudi.
