Is Saif Ali Khan’s Attacker The Same As Seen In CCTV Footage? Here’s What Experts Say

Social media users have cast doubts on whether the person arrested for stabbing actor Saif Ali Khan was indeed the real culprit, citing differences between a CCTV footage and his actual photo.

The recent knife attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan raised a lot of questions about the identity of the attacker and the credibility of the Mumbai Police. Some netizens have cast doubts on whether Shariful Islam Shehzad, the accused arrested in the case, is truly the same person who assaulted Khan at his home.

Notably, Khan was stabbed multiple times by an intruder at his home in the upscale Bandra West neighbourhood on January 16. He had sustained three injuries – two on his hand and one on his neck, with the most severe injury near his spine. He underwent a six-hour-long surgery as a 2.5-inch knife was stabbed in his body and was discharged on Tuesday.

Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla Amin Fakir, a Bangladeshi national, was arrested from Thane after three days of an intense manhunt by the police. Multiple reports claimed that he chose Saif Ali Khan’s home randomly because he was driven by extreme poverty, and wanted to steal the belongings of someone rich. A court in Mumbai on Sunday remanded the accused in five-day police custody.

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The Tale Of Two Images

However, netizens have questioned whether Fakir is truly the person who attacked Khan. Some people have pointed out the arrested man from Thane looked different from the person seen in the first CCTV footage that came out soon after the attack.

The CCTV footage in question was taken from the 6th floor of the building where Khan lives with his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan and their two children, shows a man descending the staircase carrying a black bag and jacket.

Md Ruhul Amin Fakir, the accused’s father, claimed that the person seen in the footage did not resemble his son. “My son Shariful Fakir has been arrested. I have seen both the images closely. I know my son and the two images are completely different,” Fakir told TV channel ABP Majha. The accused father further defended that his son had never kept his hair long, unlike the person in the video.

In a new footage, the suspected attacker was seen purchasing headphones from a mobile phone store named “Iqra” near Lakshmi Hotel, Dadar. Finally, when the suspect was caught, the image shown by the police seemed drastically different from the first CCTV image.

The differences in the two images have raised questions about the credibility of the Mumbai Police, who had earlier arrested a suspect Aakash Kanojia from Durg, Chhattisgarh, before it was revealed that he was not connected to the case.

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Why Are The Two Images Different?

Reacting to the debate on the accused’s actual identity, a digital forensic expert said the CCTV footage circulating on WhatsApp and social media has deteriorated in quality, which made it harder to match with the arrested individual’s features.

“Law enforcement agencies don’t rely on a single piece of evidence. The Mumbai police must have gathered a pile of evidence, including call detail records (CDRs), multiple CCTV frames, and eyewitness accounts, to create a watertight charge sheet. We do understand that the cops must be under tremendous pressure to solve the case, but no agency will take a chance to make an error in a high-profile case,” the expert told Mid-Day.

Security expert Vikash Verma told the daily that CCTV images and actual appearances are often different due to camera specifications, range and poor lighting. “The image can be enhanced by increasing pixel clarity, but foreign surveillance cameras can also detect people through body language, walking style, and structure,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police have defended their work and said they had enough evidence to prove that Shariful Islam Shehzad was the man behind the knife attack. Police said the accused escaped from Khan’s flat after the attack and hid in the garden of the building for around two hours.

He also reportedly gained entry into the actor’s building in Mumbai’s Bandra area by scaling its compound wall, and found the security guards sleeping at that time, police said on Tuesday. The accused is kept in the police lockup either at the Bandra or the Santacruz police stations and no one except the investigation officer has permission to meet him.