Saif Ali Khan's accused asks a Mumbai court to record a guilty plea

Mohammad Shariful Islam, also booked as Vijay Das, told a Mumbai sessions court on Friday that he wants to plead guilty in the January 2025 attack on actor Saif Ali Khan and to ask for a lighter sentence. His lawyer, Vipul Dushing, said his client was repenting.

Additional sessions judge Mahesh Ramrao Natu recorded the application and asked the prosecution to reply. The case is listed again on 11 September, first for admission and denial of documents. A guilty plea is not yet accepted. Until the court records it, the trial path remains open.

What changed in two weeks

On 14 August the court framed charges. Islam pleaded not guilty. The charges include robbery or dacoity with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt, use of a deadly weapon, house-trespass or house-breaking under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, plus counts under the Foreigners Act and the Passport (Entry into India) Rules for alleged illegal entry and stay. The upper end of the BNS counts is life imprisonment.

A plea of guilty, once accepted, ends the right to a full trial on those facts. That is why the prosecution has been given time. It can oppose the plea, accept it on some counts only, or argue that the sentence should stay near the top of the range even after an admission.

The case on the file

Police say the 31-year-old Bangladeshi national entered India illegally, worked for a time in a hotel, left after a dispute with the owner, and on 16 January 2025 broke into Khan's 12th-floor flat at Satguru Sharan in Bandra. Khan, then 54, was operated on at Lilavati Hospital and discharged after five days. An employee and another witness were also hurt, according to the chargesheet.

Islam was arrested on 19 January 2025 and has been in judicial custody since. The chargesheet runs to 40 witness statements. Forensic work cited in court reporting matched blood on the accused's T-shirt to Khan's sample.

Those are allegations and lab results on a police file. They have not been tested in a completed trial. A guilty plea would convert some of them into admitted facts. It would not, by itself, fix the term.

Why the date in September matters

Judges in sessions courts are not bound to accept a plea. They can refuse if they think the accused does not understand the charge, or if the admission looks tactical. They can also accept and then hear both sides on sentence.

Islam has already spent more than 19 months inside. Time served will count if a sentence follows. Life remains available on the armed-robbery-with-hurt counts. A plea for leniency is a request, not a bargain the court has signed.

For the film industry the legal file is simpler than the noise that followed the break-in. One accused, one chargesheet, one application. On 11 September the court will either start taking the admission or send the case back toward evidence. Until then the only new fact is that the man who said not guilty on 14 August now wants the opposite recorded.