Chhattisgarh: Suspect in Saif Ali Khan Attack Detained at Durg Station

Raipur: A suspect in the recent attack on the Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was on Saturday detained by the local Railway Protection Force (RPF) at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh.

The suspect, identified as Akash Kannojia (30), was travelling in the general coach of Jnaneswari Express train, police said.

“The Mumbai police alerted the RPF that one of the suspects in the attack on the Saif Ali Khan may be travelling in Jnaneswari Express and shared details on him including his photograph and mobile number.

Two teams of RPF conducted searches in the train and spotted him in the general coach of the train when it reached Durg railway station at around two pm”, RPF inspector general (IG) of police, Bilaspur zone, Munawar Khurshid told this newspaper.

He said that the RPF teams started searching for the suspect in the train when it entered Chhattisgarh in Rajnandgaon.

But, the RPF teams were able to spot him at Durg since the train has a longer stoppage at the particular railway station.

Mr Khurshid added that “The RPF has matched the inputs on the suspect shared by the Mumbai police before detaining him. Later, the RPF shared the details regarding the suspect with the Mumbai police. The Mumbai police confirmed that he was the suspect they were looking for”.

The Mumbai police team has already left for Durg and may reach Durg by eight in the evening, he said and added that the suspect would be handed over to the Mumbai police after taking necessary steps as per law.

Jnaneswari Express travels from Mumbai to Howrah.

According to the police officer, the suspect claimed that he boarded the train at Mumbai and was travelling to Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh to visit his maternal grandmother’s place in Naila-Janjgir in Champa-Janjgir district, around 50 km from Bilaspur.

Mr Khurshid expressed his inability to give further details saying that the RPF has not interrogated the suspect and will leave it to Mumbai police for interrogation.

The Bollywood actor, 54, sustained multiple stabbing wounds in the attack by the assailant at his 12th floor residence in Mumba’s Bandra area early on Thursday morning.

Doctors treating him declared that he was out of danger.