Saif Ali Khan's near-death ordeal exposes chilling lapse

As I sat down to write this piece, news came in that Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan had been discharged from hospital in Mumbai, 6 days after he was stabbed multiple times by an intruder at his own home.

It was a close call for the actor, who had to have surgery to remove a knife lodged near his spine. And even though the Mumbai police claim to have cracked the case with the arrest of an illegal Bangladeshi migrant, there are still so many questions in this bizarre story.

The incident itself was shocking. Saif Ali Khan and his wife Kareena Kapoor Khan did not have CCTVs installed at their home. Those have been put in only now. How this intruder managed to enter the building in posh Bandra still remains a mystery.

And we may never know what really happened inside. But why didn’t anyone call the police? Did anyone from the house alert security in the building? How did the attacker manage to flee so easily?

Was this an inside job?

The police say this was an attempted robbery. Media reports say Kareena Kapoor told the police her jewellery was lying right there but the “thief” did not steal it. Why? Had the attacker come to kidnap one of the children and demand a ransom?

A “hostage” situation has also been reported from that night. But then why do the police say it was an attempted burglary? The fact that the attacker knew exactly where to go suggests he knew the layout of Saif and Kareena’s home.

So I come back to the inside job question.

Watch video summary of Nidhi's op-ed

But most shocking to me was the fact that Saif was taken to the hospital in an autorickshaw (even more bizarrely apparently by his son Taimur who is 7 years old). This itself says a lot about emergency responses in our big cities.

It exposes the weaknesses in our system where ambulance services are not exactly the most dependable. Why on earth Saif was not taken to hospital in one of his many cars is inexplicable.

The incident has also reignited a debate on security for celebrities in Mumbai. Many film stars live in Bandra. Actor Salman Khan has been at the receiving end of death threats as has Shah Rukh Khan.

Last April, there was a shooting outside Salman’s Bandra home allegedly at the instructions of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother with the intent to target the superstar. Baba Siddiqui, an MLA who was close to filmstars like Salman Khan, was shot dead in Bandra in October last year.

Fandom could also be partly to blame. Celebrities are idolised in India, especially movie stars. There is no dearth of crazed fans who turn into stalkers and can pose a real danger. Many of the big stars should consider upping their own private security using both manpower and technology.

What makes the attack on Saif even scarier is that it happened in a supposedly “safe space” inside his own home. His family has been at the receiving end of the far right who have targeted his son for his Muslim name and said things that cannot be repeated here. What happened to Saif should be a wake up call for authorities in Mumbai.

If India’s biggest superstars are not safe in India’s most cosmopolitan city, then who is?