The Bombay High Court on Monday asked what prevented the police from investigating the case when the father of former celebrity Sushant Singh Rajput’s manager, Disha Salian, raised doubts about the circumstances surrounding her death in 2020.
A bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande also questioned how the post-mortem report revealed no injuries on the deceased’s body despite falling from the 14th floor.
Disha Salian died on June 8, 2020, after falling from the 14th floor of a residential building in Mumbai’s Malad area. Following this, the city police filed an accidental death report (ADR).
After investigation, the police claimed that Disha had committed suicide. However, her father, Satish Salian, filed a petition in the High Court last year alleging that his daughter had been gang-raped and then murdered.
During the hearing on Monday, the High Court bench asked the police why an FIR was not filed instead of treating the case as an accidental death investigation.
The court asked, “If the victim’s father expresses doubts about the circumstances of the death, what prevented the police from filing an FIR and investigating?”
Government lawyer Shishir Hire told the court that the case was treated as an accidental death investigation and investigated twice. Both times, the conclusion was that it was a case of suicide.
He said that the statements of witnesses in the case also supported this conclusion.
Referring to the post-mortem report, the bench also asked how the deceased’s body did not suffer any injuries after falling from a height of 14 floors.
Justice Dangre asked, “If a person falls from a height of 14 floors, would there be no injuries to their body?”
Government lawyer Shishir Hire said that according to photographs, the deceased had head injuries.
Satish Salian’s lawyer, Nilesh Ojha, claimed that the photographs initially shown to him by the police did not show any such injuries.
He alleged that the police then fabricated photographs showing head injuries.
The High Court also reprimanded the police for not providing certain documents related to the case to the petitioner.
The court stated that according to the police, no FIR has been registered and therefore no investigation is underway. When only an accidental death investigation is being conducted and the police’s conclusion is suicide, why is the petitioner being prevented from providing some basic documents?
The bench scheduled the next hearing in the case for August 24. Satish Salian has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into his daughter’s death and the registration of an FIR against Shiv Sena (Uttar Pradesh) MLA Aditya Thackeray.
Notably, Disha Salian briefly worked as actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s manager. Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide on June 14, 2020.