On January 16, 2025, Saif Ali Khan was attacked in his Mumbai residence by a man who entered during the wee hours. The assailant entered Jeh’s room and when Saif intervened, he stabbed the actor six times with a knife. Following the attack, Saif was rushed to Lilavati Hospital and the suspect, Shariful Islam was apprehended by the Mumbai Police a few days later.
After the incident, Jeh’s nanny and Kareena Kapoor Khan gave statements to the police about what had happened that night. After almost three and a half weeks since the shocking stabbing incident, Saif has opened up about the attack. The Omkara actor said, “Kareena had been out to dinner, and I had some work in the morning, so I stayed in. She came back, we had a chat and went to sleep. After a while, the house help rushed in and said – ‘There’s an intruder! There’s a guy in Jeh’s room with a knife asking for money!’ It was around 2 am, I could get the time wrong slightly, but it was late…Obviously, I kind of lost it, and went in there to see and I saw this guy holding (what I thought were) two sticks over Jeh’s bed – it was actually a hexa blade.”
Saif Ali Khan told Delhi Times that the man carried a knife and was wearing a mask. Something in Saif just took over as he grabbed the accused. The actor pulled the man down during their struggle. Saif also shared that as they wrestled, the man hit him forcefully in the back. “I thought it was… ‘I saw this guy holding (what I thought were) two sticks over Jeh’s bed – it was actually a hexa blade.”
“It didn’t really hurt because there’s too much of adrenaline and shock at that moment. And then he was slashing at my neck, and I was blocking it with my hand. There were slashes to my palm and my wrist and arm. There was all this violence – slashing with both hands, most of which was kind of defended. And yeah, I fought with him, but I couldn’t handle it after a while because there were these two knives in action. And I was just barefoot, bare-handed in a kurta pajama. I was just praying that someone could get this guy off me at this point. And my incredibly lovely house help (Geeta) pulled him off me and shoved him away. And we both kind of rolled away, and closed the door. And at this point I was covered in blood, and I lost some feeling in my right leg. This was because I had been nicked in the spine, but I didn’t realise that at the time – I thought I’d been stabbed in the leg,” the Hum Tum actor further added.
In the same interview, the Cocktail actor stated that he went upstairs to find something to fight the man. That time, Kareena Kapoor Khan took Jeh out and went to Taimur’s room. Jeh was out when the fight happened and Kareena had screamed, “Take the kid out.” Saif said that even though he was fighting the man, he couldn’t handle it after some time as there were two knives in action. When asked if Jeh was sleeping when the incident happened, Saif revealed, “He had woken up, and seen some of it. I don’t know, you know because I was busy (laughs). And then we all gathered upstairs.”
Saif Ali Khan also revealed how the intruder escaped. “Geeta had held the door shut from outside – so we thought he was locked inside. But he escaped the way he came – though we didn’t know that. He had gone the way he came in – which was up a drainpipe into the kids’ bathroom. I don’t think he knew where he was. And we all headed downstairs. It was a filmy scene where I was covered in blood and we took two decorative swords off the wall,” the actor revealed.
“And that’s what Taimur saw – me covered in blood and Hari, the other house help, holding two swords. So, it was vaguely heroic, at least that moment (laughs). We said – ‘let’s get him’. And Kareena said – ‘No, let’s get out! Because we’ve got to get you to a hospital, and I’ve got to get Jeh out of here because I feel he’s (the intruder) still around, and there could be more of them.’ So then we all went downstairs. Kareena was shouting for a rickshaw, or a cab, or anything,” he added.
After securing the intruder, Saif rushed to the hospital in an auto-rickshaw. The actor was accompanied by Taimur and another house help, Hari. They took the auto as no driver was available. Saif recalled how Taimur insisted on going with him, remaining ‘composed’ despite seeing his father bleed. Taimur even asked, “Are you going to die?” to which Saif replied, “No.” While Taimur and Saif rushed to the hospital, Kareena took Jeh to her sister Karisma Kapoor’s house.
