Mumbai: Six years after celebrity manager Disha Salian’s death was closed as an accident, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR on Monday, officials said.
The FIR was filed following a Bombay High Court order directing the central probe agency to carry out a thorough investigation after questioning Mumbai Police’s handling of the case.
A copy of the FIR has been submitted to the high court in a sealed cover. No one is to be named an accused unless there is evidence against that person, the court has said.
The FIR is based on the statement of Disha’s father Satish Salian, who shared details of the circumstances surrounding his daughter’s death with investigating authorities.
Satish told ANI that he had provided investigators with the names of several people whom he wanted authorities to examine.
“I stated the facts exactly as they were. I told them everything that happened to my daughter. I listed all the names… They noted everything down,” Satish said.
The long list of ‘heavyweights’ named in the FIR starts with Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray and his father, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
Others whose roles require investigation in the case are actors Dino Morea, Sooraj Pancholi, Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty.
The list also includes Aaditya’s bodyguards, former Mumbai cops Sachin Waze and former police commissioner Param Bir Singh, DCP Vishal Thakur, then-Maharashtra Home minister Anil Deshmukh, and several other serving or former police personnel.
“The truth cannot be defeated. God stands where the truth is; that is why justice will be served,” Satish told ANI.
Disha was found dead on June 8, 2020, after falling from the 12th floor of a building in Mumbai’s Malad area. The incident took place just six days before actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Bandra home. The proximity of the two deaths fuelled speculation of a possible link between the cases.
The death of Disha, who had earlier worked for Sushant, was recorded by police as an Accidental Death Report (ADR).
Her father approached the high court seeking a CBI investigation, alleging that several aspects of his daughter’s death had not been properly examined.
The Bombay High Court criticised Mumbai Police for treating the matter as an accidental death for six years and flagged “glaring discrepancies” in the investigation.
The court observed that the probe “raises more questions than answers”, and ordered a CBI inquiry.
