New Delhi: Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan is recovering after he was stabbed by an intruder at his posh Mumbai residence in a robbery attempt early Thursday morning. Saif Ali Khan was jabbed six times, including in his neck with a 2.5-inch piece of the blade, that was later removed from his spine after a five-hour-long surgery. He was rushed to Lilavati Hospital in an auto rickshaw reportedly accompanied by his older son Ibrahim Ali Khan. In a recent media interaction, the auto driver recalled the night when he dropped ‘a passenger with blood-soaked kurta’ to the Bandra hospital unaware that the man was Saif Ali Khan.
“It was only when we reached the hospital gate that he called the guard to fetch a stretcher, saying he was Saif Ali Khan,” Auto rickshaw driver Bhajan Singh Rana told reporters in Mumbai on Friday. He recounted that as he was passing by the Satguru Darshan building, where the actor resided, a woman and few others, signaled for him to stop his rickshaw.
“Then the person whose white kurta was soaked in blood got in the auto. I noticed he had neck and back injuries, but did not notice the hand injury,” the driver described the wee hours of Thursday in vivid details.
The driver confirmed that the actor managed to walk into the rickshaw despite his condition. “He (Saif) walked into the auto. There was a seven- or eight-year-old boy who also boarded the rickshaw,” he added when asked if Saif’s son Taimur accompanied him to the hospital.
Initially, the plan was to head to Holy Family Hospital in Bandra. However, Saif requested a change of destination and directed the driver to Lilavati Hospital, also located in Bandra, the driver said.
When Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan arrived at the hospital, he reportedly identified himself at the gate. “Please bring a stretcher. I am Saif Ali Khan,” he told the guard, according to Bhajan Singh Rana’s accounts.
The journey took just seven to eight minutes and they reached the hospital around 3 a.m. “I didn’t take any fare from him,” the driver revealed, recounting the urgency of the situation.
The actor was speaking with the boy in the auto, Rana said, adding there was also another young man in the auto, in an apparent reference to Ibrahim Ali Khan, the 23-year-old son of Saif and his first wife, Amrita Singh.
For the unversed, Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was attacked while he was with his family at their residence in the 12-floor apartment building. The incident occurred as Khan was with his wife, actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, and their two sons, eight-year-old Taimur and four-year-old Jeh.
(With PTI inputs)