Mumbai: In a case of mistaken identity, a man had to pay heavily for no fault of his own.
Akash Kailash Kanojia, a 31-year-old working in Mumbai, was wrongly apprehended as Saif Ali Khan’s attacker, which cost him his job and marriage.
In their hurry to solve the Saif stabbing case, Mumbai Police alerted Railway Protection Force (RPF) officers that the ‘culprit’ was travelling from Mumbai to Bilaspur by Jnaneswari Express the day after the actor was attacked in his Bandra residence.
Kanojia was actually travelling to meet his prospective bride when he was detained by RPF officials at Durg railway station, he told the Hindustan Times.
“The RPF personnel not only apprehended me, they also issued a press release with my photograph, which was shown widely by television channels and media outlets. As a result, the bride’s family cancelled the meeting with me and my employer terminated my services,” Kanojia revealed.
Kanojia, employed as a driver with a tour company which works with Western Railway in Mumbai, received a call from Mumbai Police on January 17, asking him where he was. When he said he was at home, the call was disconnected, Kanojia informed.
“The next day, I boarded Jnaneswari Express from Mumbai hoping to visit my ailing grandmother in our native place Nehla in Chhattisgarh. I was supposed to change trains in Bilaspur to go to Nehla and was slated to meet the family of my prospective bride later,” Kanojia told HT.
At around 10 am on January 18, RPF personnel nabbed him at Durg junction on suspicion of being Saif’s attacker and took him to Raipur. The Mumbai Police team reached Raipur that evening, and told Kanojia he would be brought back to Mumbai the following day for further investigation.
“I told the police that I had nothing to do with the attack on Saif Ali Khan and offered to make them speak with my relatives. I also told them that they could check footage from CCTVs installed near my house to clarify their doubts. But they did not pay any heed – instead, they took my photos and circulated them in the media, claiming I was the attacker,” Kanojia recalled his ordeal.
On the night of January 18, police arrested Shariful Islam Shehzad, an alleged Bangladeshi national, from Thane, claiming that he was the one who actually broke into Saif’s residence for an attempted burglary.
Kanojia was released on the morning of January 19 and told that he could proceed to his grandmother’s place.
“When I spoke to my mother (in Mumbai) after being released, she seemed very worried as my photo had been shown on all news channels and asked me to return home immediately. The next day, when I called my employer, he asked me to stop reporting for work, saying, ‘You are in legal trouble and I don’t want to get into trouble because of you’. I tried explaining the matter to him but he wasn’t willing to hear me out,” said Kanojia.
He also received a call from his grandmother, who told him that the family of his prospective bride had refused to go ahead with the marriage proposal after seeing his photo on news channels.
“After what has happened, I am not sure if I will be able to get married in future,” Kanojia lamented.
Kanojia now wants all photos identifying him as the ‘Saif attacker’ taken off the internet. He has approached a lawyer, but is not sure how he will pay his fees.
Kanojia pointed out that the police failed to notice one simple thing – “that I have moustache, while the person captured in CCTV cameras installed in Saif Ali Khan’s building did not have one.”
Will Mumbai Police answer this horrible blunder?
