Actor Saif Ali Khan

Soumitra Bose (THE TIMES OF INDIA; January 19, 2025)

Nagpur/Mumbai: An SECR RPF team Saturday said it has detained a suspect in last week’s attack on actor Saif Ali Khan from the LTT-Shalimar Jnaneswari Express at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Mumbai police officials said there were reports of a person resembling the attacker shopping for headphones in a Dadar shop and later loitering outside the railway station.

Nagpur railway police said the suspect, Akash Kannaujiya, 31, was caught in Durg after they missed him by a whisker at Nagpur, where the SECR headquarters reportedly received a precise tipoff on his location inside Jnaneswari Express, which crossed the station at 9.40am. His cellphone tower location again resurfaced when the train was heading to Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh. According to SECR sources, the RPF team scoured the train at Rajnandgaon station at 12.42pm, but failed to track him during its one-minute halt.

Mumbai police had been intermittently receiving his tower location in Vidarbha, Nagpur RPF officials said. The cyber sleuths finally zeroed in on Jnaneswari Express, which had chugged out of Mumbai on Friday evening. Kannaujiya is suspected to have intruded into actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Bandra home early on Friday and knifed Saif 6 times. A precise alert was sent to SECR headquarters, said Nagpur RPF sources, adding Kannaujiya changed trains over the past 48 hours, before boarding Jnaneshwari Express.

Two RPF teams at Durg led by senior inspector S K Sinha, boarded the train in civvies after it reached the station at 1.35pm. “We started scouring the train for the suspect based on photos shared by Mumbai police. Constables Shriram and Nirmala were in the general coach. They had the images of the suspect on their mobile phone. Soon, cops in plainclothes noticed the suspect inside the general coach and he was nabbed and de-boarded,” said Sinha, adding Kannaujiya's image matched with the photographs sent by Mumbai police. “Mumbai police confirmed the suspect after a video-conferencing with us,” said Sinha.

Sources said Kannaujiya was being questioned at the RPF thana at Durg. The actor was attacked around 2.30 am last Thursday.

According to the FIR, the intruder—described as a man in his late 30s with a slim build and dark complexion—was first spotted by stay-at-home nurse, Eliyamma Phillips, outside Saif’s son’s bedroom. Phillip said the intruder warned her to stay silent and demanded Rs 1 crore. As he attacked her with a knife, causing minor injuries, her screams woke up the son’s nanny Junu, who called out for help, prompting Saif and wife Kareena Kapoor Khan to come rushing. He then stabbed Saif.

(With V Narayan)
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Shirish Vaktania (MID-DAY; January 19, 2025)

Police have detained a suspect in the Saif Ali Khan attack, on a train to Chhattisgarh during an alleged attempt to flee the city on Saturday. Mumbai Police had sent a photo of the accused, as well as his mobile tower location, to Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials in Durg, where he was apprehended. A Mumbai Police team took a flight to Raipur on Saturday evening to take custody of the suspect, identified as Akash Kailash Kanojiya, 31, a Colaba resident. He was caught travelling aboard the Jnaneshwari Express (12101) without a ticket.

The attack took place in the wee hours of January 16 at Saif Ali Khan’s home. The assailant stabbed the actor in six spots on his neck, spine, hand and wrist. Saif Ali Khan underwent surgery at Lilavati hospital, where doctors removed a portion of the knife that had broken off and was lodged in his spine.

A police officer told mid-day, “It seems that the accused had a detailed plan and sufficient knowledge about entry and exit routes. He entered Saif’s building from the neighbouring building, climbing up the duct area before entering the house. The accused first attacked Saif’s house help and then stabbed Saif. The accused also demanded Rs 1 crore from the help. The accused then escaped by the same route.”

The police suspect the attack was pre-meditated, with CCTV footage showing the accused had also kept a change of clothes ready to evade the cops after the attack. “He was wearing a black T-shirt at the time of the incident and was later captured by CCTV cameras in Juhu wearing a blue shirt,” said the officer.

Meanwhile, the police are now investigating whether the crime was motivated by robbery at all, as Saif’s wife, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, told the investigators that the accused had not touched any of the jewellery kept in the open in the house.