Mum cops raid Nadia home, places near Siliguri in Shariful probe
Times of India | 28 January 2025
123 Kolkata/Krishnanagar: A Mumbai Police team probing the Saif Ali Khan stabbing case raided different places in Bengal as it traced the route arrested suspect Shariful Fakir, an illegal immigrant, took to reach Mumbai from his home in Bangladesh.
Sources said four cops from Mumbai Police reached Bengal on Saturday and first went to Siliguri's Panitanki area, from where Fakir allegedly bought a SIM card. "The SIM was registered against one Khukumani Sheikh. The address given in the Aadhaar card used to procure the SIM card mentioned Chapra in Nadia," said a source.
Cops raided Khukumani's home on Monday, but she wasn't there. They located her at another address under Kotwali PS, sources said. She told cops that her Aadhaar card, mobile phone and some other documents had gone missing when she visited Kolkata recently for her treatment. She said her documents might have been used by someone else, said sources.
"We assisted the team from Mumbai. No fresh arrests were made in Nadia," said Makwana Meetkumar Sanjaykumar, the additional SP, (HQ), Krishnananagar Police District.
A senior official of Bengal Police said the team raided three different places in and around Siliguri and one place in Chapra and interrogated three persons. "We don't know much about the course of the investigation. They took down statements and are heading back to Mumbai on Monday night," the official said.
Mumbai Police is yet to issue a statement on the raids in Bengal. The development came a day after Bandra police said they were still awaiting Shariful's final fingerprint report, who was arrested on Jan 16. The police, however, confirmed that a preliminary report indicated a match with Shariful.
On Jan 24, a Bandra court extended Shariful's custody till Jan 29 after police said they needed to conduct a facial recognition test to confirm his identity.
Shariful's father, who lives in Jhalokathi district in Bangladesh, has claimed that the man in CCTV footage pictures that cops released a day after the assault was not his son.
Officials said Shariful entered India illegally by crossing the Dawki river at the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya last April. Subsequently, he assumed a new identity as Bijoy Das and established residence in India. He stayed in Bengal for a few days before moving to Mumbai in search of a job, police said.