Hours after reports claimed that a man detained in Mumbai on Friday was connected to the attack on Saif Ali Khan at his Bandra home, the Mumbai Police has said that is not the case.
Visuals showed the man being taken to the Bandra police station on Friday morning. Not much was known about him, but sources had initially said that he was linked to the stabbing case. It was not confirmed that he was the same man who had broken into the actor's home yesterday and attacked him.
On Friday afternoon, however, a senior Mumbai Police officer said that the person who was taken to the Bandra Police Station for questioning had nothing to do with the attack on Saif Ali Khan. No one has been detained or arrested in connection with the case, the officer said.
The man who attacked Saif Ali Khan in the early hours of Thursday was spotted near the Bandra railway station and police believe that he changed his clothes, went to the station and boarded a train. Police teams are also camping in Vasai and Nalasopara in Palghar district.
Having formed 15 teams to trace the attacker, the Mumbai Police had upped that number to 20 by Thursday evening. It has also been gathering technical data and using its informer network, but a breakthrough is proving elusive even 36 hours after the attack.
The police said the intruder entered 'Satguru Sharan', the 12-storey building in the posh Bandra locality that houses the actor's four-floor residence, to commit a burglary.
The cops suspect that the intruder was known to one of the house helps working for the Khans and that's how he gained access to the house without being caught on CCTV cameras in the lobby. They believe he was familiar with the building layout and had used the fire shaft to reach the top floors after scaling the wall of an adjacent compound, sources said.
The break-in lasted for 30 minutes on the 11th floor of the building, during which the house helps and Mr Khan tried to fight off the intruder. The actor's younger son Jeh's nanny was injured as she tried to stop him and Mr Khan suffered six injuries during the confrontation. Left bleeding, he was rushed to a nearby hospital and underwent emergency surgery. He is now out of danger.
The intruder managed to escape and was seen on CCTV on the sixth floor while climbing down the stairs.
The attack has raised questions over the role of the security guards in the posh Bandra locality. It also prompted salvos by the opposition over the law-and-order situation in the city.
Mumbai Police has registered a case of robbery, trespassing, and causing grievous hurt.
