Rafique Shaikh, the Mumbai locksmith, who helped open the door lock of the room where Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead on June 14, recently broke his silence.
As reported by Midday, Rafique revealed that he was given Rs 2,000 for the job. Unaware of whose house it was, he left the flat after breaking the lock, as he wasn’t permitted inside the room.
Shaikh’s statement matches that of Sushant’s cook, Neeraj Singh, who was also present at the flat at that time. Neeraj had told the Mumbai Police that the “chaviwala” (Shaikh) was paid Rs 2,000 – but he was asked, “not to push the door in”.
As reported by Zee News, the keymaker received the call from Siddharth Pithani (he did not know the caller’s identity then, but later came to know that it was Siddharth Pithani after several media reports) around 1:05 pm on June 14, who asked him to unlock the door of a residence in Bandra. The keymaker then asked the caller to send the photo of the lock on his Whatsapp number.
When he reached there, Shaikh was shown the door and asked to unlock it, but said that it was not possible as it was a computerised lock. Then Shaikh said he was asked to break it open – and he did the job with a hammer .
“I broke open the lock, collected my fees of Rs 2,000 and left. I did not enter the room,” he said. “There were four…three or four people there. I don’t know their names,” Shaikh added.
The Zee News report also states that the keymaker was told to stop the work immediately if there was a sound from inside the room. He was not allowed to look or enter inside the actor’s room and was asked to leave the place as soon as he broke the lock.
The keymaker said that he has not received any call from the CBI yet. He added that if called, he would cooperate with the officials.