Mumbai, January 20 (Indian Express): A UPI transaction made through Google Pay (G Pay) for paratha and a bottle of water at a stall near Century Mill in Worli was the crucial lead that led Mumbai Police to Mohammad Shariful Islam (30) late Saturday night, nearly 70 hours after he allegedly attacked actor Saif Ali Khan in his Mumbai home, sources associated with the investigation told The Indian Express.

The phone payment led police to the accused’s mobile number that was then traced to Thane where more clues led to a dense mangrove cluster near a labour camp, the sources said. Soon, about 100 police personnel launched a search at the site.

“After searching there, the police team had almost left the spot when they decided to check once more. As they looked again, the light from one of the torches indicated someone sleeping on the ground. As an officer moved closer, the person got up and started running. He was soon caught and overpowered,” the sources said.

“During initial questioning, the accused told us that after he saw his images being flashed on TV and YouTube, he got scared and fled to Thane as he had worked in a bar there and knew the area,” they said.

Earlier, the police started closing in on the suspect after tracking CCTV footage at the Bandra railway station and tracing him to a shop outside the Dadar station from where he bought a mobile cover. “But he made a cash payment here. After that, he moved to Kabutarkhana and then to Worli,” sources said.

As the police started scanning footage in the Worli area, they found the suspect lingering for a while at a stall near Century Mill. “In the footage, he was seen chatting twice with the person running the stall,” sources said. Crime Branch teams were soon deployed and they found that the man running the stall, Naveen Ekka, was staying near Koliwada. “On the suspicion that the accused was a friend of Ekka, seven police teams searched the Worli-Koliwada area on Saturday, showing pictures of the accused to vendors,” sources said.

According to investigators, the police traced Ekka’s address to a house of the Jaihind Mitra Mandal in Janata Colony where he was staying along with four or five other workers. But when they reached the spot, the house was locked, they said. The police then contacted the landlord Rajnarajayan Prajapati. “The police got Ekka’s mobile number through Prajapati’s son Vinod. They also showed Vinod a photo of the suspect. He confirmed that Ekka was a tenant but he could not identify the accused,” sources said.

Soon, Ekka was tracked down, and he told the police that the suspect had made a UPI payment for paratha and the water bottle. “The police got the mobile number of the accused through us as he had paid the money through G Pay,” Vinod told The Indian Express.

The mobile number was a key turning point as it led the police to the labour camp at Kasarvadavali in Thane, and a contractor named Amit Pandey who had hired the accused a few months earlier. “Nearly 20 teams arrived at the location and began searching for the suspect. But he had fled the spot and turned off his mobile phone around 10 pm Saturday,” sources said.

That was when the hunt expanded to include the mangroves near the camp – and ended with that torch light shone by a member of the team led by DCP Navnath Dhawale.

The man suspected of having stabbed actor Saif Ali Khan at his residence, who then eluded Mumbai Police for over 48 hours, slept in dense mangroves in Thane and was picked up by police late on Saturday after they decided to do one more check just as they were about to leave the area following a search at a nearby labour camp, sources said.

When they looked again, the torchlight indicated someone sleeping on the ground. As an officer approached, the man got up and started running, and was followed by a team of nearly 100 police personnel. He was subsequently overpowered and apprehended.

On Sunday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dixit Gedam said the suspect was identified as Mohammad Islam and is of Bangladeshi origin. The DCP said the 30-year-old had changed his name to Vijay Das after entering India. He entered Mumbai around six months ago. According to officers, the suspect told police during questioning that after the incident at Saif Ali Khan’s home in Bandra (West) early on Thursday, he had taken a train from Bandra to Dadar, from where he walked to his place of residence in Worli Koliwada.

“He told us that after he saw his images flashed on TV and YouTube, got scared, and fled to Thane as he had worked there in a bar and knew the area. When he saw cops there, he fled again and switched off his mobile phone,” an officer said.

By Saturday evening, police had identified the suspect and started tracking his phone number. CCTV footage from Dadar Railway station showing the accused. CCTV footage from Dadar Railway station showing the accused.

Earlier, police had been in the dark about his identity, but CCTV footage from Dadar helped them get the investigation back on track. In the footage from a mobile shop, he was seen purchasing a phone cover. Police continued to track him through CCTV cameras and located his residence in the Sion Koliwada area, where he had been sharing a room with five others.

Based on their inquiries and his mobile records, police discovered that he had visited a labour camp in Thane. Additionally, another team identified a contractor, who had hired the suspect a few months earlier. Nearly 20 teams arrived at the location and searched for the suspect.

However, he fled the scene and turned off his mobile phone at around 10 pm on Saturday. Approximately 100 officers from the Mumbai Police gathered at the site to continue the search for him. A team led by DCP Navnath Dhawale ultimately located the suspect hiding in the mangroves and apprehended him.

He was later formally arrested. After arriving in Mumbai nearly six months ago, he had been working at a bar in Thane, which he left just a week ago in search of new employment, officials said.

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