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Kanojia said that things were going smooth for his family after a long time but his detention has changed everything.

Kanojia was detained from Durg railway station while he was on his back to his native place in Chhattisgarh. (ANI photo)
The earlier detention of a Colaba resident in connection with the attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has resulted in him losing his job and cancellation of his marriage, according to a report in Hindustan Times. The 31-year-old Mumbai resident, identified as Akash Kailash Kanojia, was detained on January 18, two days after a horrifying attack on the actor at his Bandra residence.
Kanojia was detained from Durg railway station while he was on his way back to his native place, Nehla, in Chhattisgarh from Mumbai.
The Colaba resident told Hindustan Times that he was travelling to Bilaspur via Jnaneswar Express on January 17 to meet his ailing grandmother and prospective bride when he was detained by railway protection force (RPF) officers at the station.
This happened after an erroneous alert by Mumbai police to RPF, claiming that Kanojia was the person behind the foiled robbery attempt at actor’s Mumbai residence.
Sharing the ordeal, the 31-year-old said that soon after he was nabbed, his photographs were circulated widely on TV channels and media outlets which led him to losing his job as well as suffering a setback in personal life as the bride’s family refused to meet him.
“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,” Hindustan Times quoted Kanojia as saying.
Kanojia worked as a driver for a tour company which works with Western Railway in Mumbai. On January 17, he received a call from Mumbai police, which asked him about his whereabouts. When he told the officer that he was at home, the latter disconnected the call, he told Hindustan Times.
“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,” he told HT.
On January 18, when the train reached Durg junction at around 10am, RPF personnel detained him, suspecting him to be Saif’s attacker and took him to Raipur. The Mumbai police team reached there almost 12 hours later and told him that he would be brought back to the city the following day for further probe.
He told police that he had nothing to do with the attack but they didn’t listen to him.
“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,” said Kanojia.
However, the same day, police arrested Shariful Islam Shehzad, an alleged Bangladeshi national, from Thane, claiming him to be the real attacker.
The next morning on Jan 19, Kanojia was released but he requested them to take him back to Mumbai as he feared that they might follow his trail and question him in front of his family members and relatives. But his plea was turned down.
“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.
In the meantime, he got 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 the entire episode.
“After what has happened, I am not sure if I will be able to get married in future,” he said.
He rued that things were going smooth for his family after a long time, but his detention has changed everything.
“My brother died some time back after prolonged medical treatment, for which we had to sell whatever we had, including our house in Virar. My father’s garage in Colaba was also shut down after somebody cheated him of ₹9 lakh and fled the country,” said Kanojia, who is an accused in a drug-related case and a theft case. “I hope the courts will eventually clear me of all the charges,” he said.
After all the chaos, Kanojia wants all his photos, identifying him as the attacker, be taken down from the internet. He has also approached a lawyer for the same, though he can hardly afford any expenses.
“The police failed to notice a simple thing – that I have moustache, while the person captured in CCTV cameras installed in Saif Ali Khan’s building did not have one. Yet. I had to go through this ordeal,” he told HT.