A man believed to be a Bangladeshi citizen was arrested in India's financial capital Mumbai on Sunday and is believed to be the main suspect in the stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, the police said.
Thursday's attack on Khan, one of India's most bankable stars, shocked the country's film industry and Mumbai residents, with many calling for better policing and security. He was out of danger, doctors said.
“Prime evidence indicates that the accused is a Bangladeshi citizen and after entering India illegally he changed his name,” said Dixit Gedam, deputy police commissioner, at a press conference.
The suspect, who was arrested on the outskirts of Mumbai, used the name Vijay Das but is believed to be Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad and was working with a housekeeping agency after coming to town five or six months ago, Gedam said.
The police will request the arrest of the suspect for further investigation, he said.
A star stabbed in his own home
Khan, 54, was stabbed six times by an assailant while trying to burglarize his home. He walked into the hospital in blood-soaked clothes, along with his six-year-old son, Taimur, and later underwent surgery for wounds to his back, neck and hands, doctors said.
Doctors on Friday said Khan was stable and out of danger after the surgery.
“If the knife had gone in further, the spinal cord would have been injured,” Niraj Uttamnani, one of the doctors who treated Khan, told reporters last week. ' adding that the actor had escapeda distance of just two millimeters.
Police in Mumbai arrested the first suspect on Friday, and police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh arrested the second on Saturday.
The son of former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore, Khan is one half of one of Bollywood's biggest power couples. He and his wife, Kareena Kapoor Khan, have both appeared in over 60 films each, including a few they worked on together.
In Instagram post last week, Kapoor Khan asked the media and paparazzi to “stop the speculation and the incessant coverage,” saying the constant attention is appalling and a “big threat to our safety.”
