Even after four years, the mystery surrounding the death of Disha Salian continues. The Malvani police during the tenure of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government failed to make any headway. In December 2023, the Mahayuti government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) but this panel too appears to have made no progress.
Salian, a former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, died at the age of 28. Sushant himself died in his sea-facing Bandra apartment under mysterious circumstances. On June 8, 2020, Salian had hosted a party at her residence on the 14th floor of Royal Palm in Malad (West), to which several friends, including her fiancé Rohan Rai, were invited. The guest list included her college mate Himanshu, two of her childhood best friends, Neel and Deep, and Neel’s new girlfriend.
According to a petition filed by the Supreme Court and High Court Litigants Association, that night a well-known person arrived at her flat with security personnel. The petition alleges that Disha was gang-raped and thrown out of the window and that her body was found in the compound without clothes 10-15 feet away from the building; indicating that she was pushed from the flat. Had she jumped on her own, she would have fallen close to the building.
Rohan reportedly came down the apartment almost 25 minutes after the incident by which time the watchman had informed the police. Strangely, several hours after her death, her mobile phone remained in use. It is not clear who was using her phone and why. It was also reported that the CCTV footage of the building from the day of the incident was erased, and the relevant pages from the visitors’ diary torn. The building’s watchman was reportedly sent to his village after the incident. Her fiancé also disappeared for almost two years. The question is who was trying to cover up the crime and what was the motive.
BJP legislator Nitesh Rane has repeatedly levelled serious allegations against a former state minister, raising questions about the aforementioned points. He claimed that the case was being handled in a way that aimed to protect certain people and stated, “I say with full responsibility that it is not a suicide but murder.” Rane expressed doubts about the police’s intent, suggesting that the investigations were being conducted to shield someone.
In contrast, Disha’s friends have reported that she locked herself in a room before she was discovered. According to messages shared on her college WhatsApp group, she had been partying with her friends and fiancé and had consumed a significant amount of alcohol. She reportedly complained that “no one cares for anyone anymore”. Her friends, hearing the sound of a running tap, assumed she was throwing up. When she did not respond to their knocks, they broke down the door and found that she had fallen down.
In 2021, the police concluded that her death was a suicide and closed the investigation, finding no evidence of foul play. On December 8, 2023, the Mumbai police commissioner ordered the SIT to reinvestigate the case. The team was led by additional police commissioner, north region, Rajiv Jain, and included Deputy Commissioner zone-11 Ajay Bansal and Chimaji Adhaw, senior police inspector of Malvani police station. Later, Bansal was transferred and replaced by DCP Anand Bhoite.
Petitioner advocate Nilesh Ojha has criticised the police and the SIT. He told the FPJ on Saturday, “The police and SIT must understand that this is a democratic country and they are accountable to the public. They should first disclose the earlier closure report and the name of the earlier accused investigation officer. The SIT is acting very casually in such a serious case. So far there has been no recreation of the crime scene. No FIR has been registered yet despite sufficient material and despite the settled law laid down by the Supreme Court. This shows that SIT and the state government are not serious about the case."
