A man detained at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh, in connection with the attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan on January 16, was let off on Sunday, police said.
Earlier on Sunday, the Mumbai police claimed to have arrested a 30-year-old man from Thane in this connection. The suspect, who was travelling by the Mumbai LTT-Kolkata Shalimar Jnaneshwari Express, was detained during interrogation.
“The man detained at Durg station on Saturday afternoon was only a suspect and has been released after an inquiry. He was kept at the RPF post overnight and released this morning,” a police official said.
Mumbai police, however, maintained that they had not done anything wrong. “We can detain anyone for inquiry purposes. He was always referred to as a suspect. There has been no error on our part. We communicated to the media that we would provide accurate information, but some outlets prematurely labeled him as an accused,” explained sub-inspector Pradeep Funde.
The arrest was made after RPF officials received his photograph from Mumbai police. A Mumbai police team, led by Funde, reached Durg after the arrest to take him for further interrogation.
In a related development, police in Mumbai arrested Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, a Bangladeshi national who allegedly entered India illegally and took on the identity of Bijoy Das. Preliminary investigations by police revealed that he broke into Khan’s apartment in Satguru Sharan, Bandra, with an intention to steal.
The 54-year-old Saif Ali Khan suffered multiple stab injuries and underwent a five-hour surgery at Lilavati Hospital.
