Was The Attack On Saif Waiting To Happen?

How did the thug access Saif Ali Khan's home?

Did Saif Ali Khan realise the extent of risk his family and he were exposed to at his residential complex Satguru Sharan given the lax security at the building located at a busy junction on Bandra's 29th Road?

One might say it is easy to talk about lax security in hindsight but given his star status and the kind of hate-filled social media narratives that his family and he -- including his two children -- have been subjected to and the recent death threats received by fellow star Salman Khan and the murder of Salman's family friend and NCP leader Baba Siddiqui, one wonders if Bollywood -- including Saif and his family -- is too relaxed when it comes to security.

The information in this report is based on how seven regular visitors this correspondent spoke to -- including a building resident -- painted a grim picture of the lax security the star and his family -- and other residents of Satguru Sharan -- were unwittingly living under.

Crime branch sleuths with whom we tried to get confirmation about these security details and lapses neither rejected nor contested these details.

All the seven were unanimous in their description of how easy it was for any outsider to reach any floor once they entered the lift and how access was granted to outsiders inside the building.

Each of these seven corroborated the other six while describing how easy it was for non-residents -- house help, drivers, courier guys, those who delivered groceries from nearby mom-and-pop stores, etc, but not food delivery people -- to access the home of Saif and his wife Kareena Kapoor, who lives on the top two floors of the 12-storeyed building.

When asked if once inside the lift anybody would have an unhindered access to Saif's residence located on the 11th and 12th floors, all those we spoke to replied in the affirmative.

To begin with, the society has only four security personnel -- two on the morning shift and two on the night shift -- watching over the safety of 12 residential flats.

The building has two main gates -- one facing west and the other facing south; two buildings abut Satguru Sharan on the other two sides from whose compound anybody can easily climb to enter its premises -- that slide in and slide out because the building faces narrow roads on both sides of the gate and is located right at the junction of a busy crossroad.

There are no CCTV cameras inside the lift for the man in the lobby to watch if the person is going to the very floor mentioned by that person in the society logbook.

"What security? It was a free for all till yesterday," says one of the regulars at Satguru Sharan referring to a small gate abutting the main gate from where most outsiders have to pass through if they are not travelling in a vehicle. It was the same narrow entrance used by cops to enter and exit the building today.

"A security guard has access to the swipe system via a swipe card which opens the main entrance leading to the foyer. Without the security guard and the swipe card that he uses to open the glass door nobody can enter inside the building," according to all the seven people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"But once this security check is crossed there is no one in the foyer to keep a check on who -- mostly house help, drivers and grocery delivery people from the neighbourhood stores who are known to the security guards -- is going where," says one of the seven people who shared the information about there being just four security men on duty -- two in the morning, manning the two gates, and two in the evening doing the same.

This means that there were just two guards handling the security of the building on the intervening night of January 15-16 when Saif was stabbed six times by the thief, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dixit Gedam informed the media in an afternoon interaction on January 16, with the sole intention of robbing the Khan household.

The thief, stated the DCP, used the fire escape to enter the actor's house but used the stairs to exit the building when a CCTV camera on one of the floors captured him.

Yes, there are cameras all around," reiterates this resident. "Every floor has a security camera except the 11th and 12th floor," says this resident referring to the absence of CCTV cameras on the floors occupied by the actor and his family.

This flaw in the star's security could be perhaps because the Khans would want to guard their privacy.

The security guard seated at some central location, in many residential societies, has direct access to visuals from all security cameras, positioned at strategic locations inside the building.

It is under these lax security conditions that the stranger was able to reach Saif's 12th floor residence using the fire escape route in Satguru Sharan.

"Till Wednesday, even the small gate -- next to the main sliding gate facing west -- would remain ajar all through the day. Anybody could walk inside the building compound till that person reached the security guard stationed at the door who would then swipe a card to let that person enter the main foyer through which the lift to all the floors could be accessed," according to a regular visitor."

"There is no biometric security system that restricts access to anybody, once inside the lift, to reach a designated floor mapped to that person's biometrics or for the lift to start," a resident corroborates the details given by the other five regulars.

A dozen or so crime branch sleuths kept visiting the building and Saif's home through the day. A steady stream of these investigators entered and exited through the west-facing gate.

"Only our seniors can answer these questions and give any official comments about it," replied a few of them whom we approached to confirm the details shared by the seven people.