I am not a culprit, says ‘suspect’ in Saif Ali Khan stabbing case

Akash Kanojiya denies involvement in Saif Ali Khan stabbing case, released after Mumbai Police inquiry in Chhattisgarh.

“I am not the culprit, boss… I am going home” was the concise response of Akash Kanojiya to a volley of questions directed at him and a Mumbai Police team escorting him in Chhattisgarh’s Durg on Sunday (January 19, 2025). Mr. Kanojiya, 31, was identified as a ‘suspect’ by the Railway Protection Force in actor Saif Ali Khan stabbing case on Saturday, hours before the Mumbai Police made an arrest in the case. 

Even as a police officer said he was ‘just a suspect’ and was released after inquiry, journalists surrounding the Mumbai Police team accompanying Mr. Kanojiya raised questions about the ‘identification’ exercise. Mr. Kanojiya’s photos along with the news had gone viral by the time the news of the alleged attacker — Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, a Bangladeshi national who had illegally entered India and changed his name to Bijoy Das — poured in. 

“There was no mistake…,” said a member of the Mumbai Police team, in response to a question on the identification. “You people [journalists] made it go viral. We will do our authentic job. If we feel someone is a suspect, we will question him. There wasn’t  just one team, teams were sent across India,” he said. He added that Mr. Kanojiya would be dropped at the railway station and was free to go wherever he wished. 

Earlier on Saturday, RPF officers had said Mr. Kanojiya was detained from the Mumbai LTT-Kolkata Shalimar Jnaneshwari Express at Durg station after a tip-off was received from the Mumbai Police that he was a suspect in the Saif Ali Khan case and that the metropolitan police officers had confirmed him as a suspect too. The verbal police statements were followed by a press release shared by the South-East Central Zone of the Railway documenting the same.