Disha Salian case: HC directs registry to move plea to Justice Kotwal’s bench

On Wednesday the Bombay High Court directed its registry department to place before an appropriate bench the petition filed by Satish Salian father of former celebrity manager Disha Salian seeking a CBI probe into his daughters death and an FIR against MLA Aaditya ThackerayThe plea came up for a hearing before a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela GokhaleSalians lawyers highlighted that the petition pertains to crimes against women and the assignment is related to the division bench headed by Justice Sarang KotwalThe court then directed the HCs registry department to take steps to place the petition before that benchSalian had last month filed a petition in HC seeking a fresh probe into the mysterious circumstances under which she was found dead in June 2020Satish Salian stated that the petition urged the HC to register a First Information Report against Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray and transfer the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation CBIAs per PTI the plea alleged that Disha Salian was brutally raped and murdered and subsequently there was a politicallyorchestrated coverup to protect certain influential peopleThe petitioner initially believed that the probe conducted by the city police was genuine but has learnt that it was a coverup the plea statedThe Mumbai police hastily closed the death as a case of suicide or accidental death without taking into account forensic evidence circumstantial proof and eyewitness testimonies the plea stated reported PTIDisha Salian died on June 8 2020 after falling off the 14th floor of a residential building in suburban Malad The city police had then registered an Accidental Death Report ADR caseBollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his apartment in suburban Bandra on June 14 2020 While the city police initially stated it was a case of suicide the case was handed over to the CBI laterThe CBI last month submitted a closure report in the caseDisha Salian case What really happened that nightDisha Salianrsquos father has called for a reinvestigation into her death deepening the mystery around the celebrity manager Sunday midday brings you an explainerDisha Salian was a 28yearold celebrity talent manager She had an impressive portfolio representing Bollywood actors Sushant Singh Rajput Varun Sharma Prachi Desai and Bharti Singh among othersOn the night of June 8 2020 the 28yearold Salian allegedly fell to her death from the 12th floor of her fianceacute Rohan Rairsquos apartment at Jankalyan Nagar in Malvani Malad West She is survived by her parents Vasanti and Satish SalianRai and Salian first met in 2013 after he moved to Mumbai from Delhi He was a model In 2017 the couple got engaged at Salianrsquos parentsrsquo home in central Mumbai In 2018 Rai bought a twobedroom apartment in the Malad highrise where they moved in togetherOn June 6 2020 Salianrsquos college friend Himanshu Shikre who lived nearby visited Rairsquos apartment The following day Salian and her childhood friend Indraneel Vaidya whose birthday was on May 25 had a joint birthday celebration at the RaiSalian home Salianrsquos birthday was on May 26 The gathering included Shikre Vaidya Resha Padwal and another friend Deep AjmeraDespite the lockdown the friends held on to the tradition of celebrating their birthdays together On June 7 all six of them partied That night Shikre Padwal Vaidya and Ajmera stayed over at Rairsquos apartment The group decided to extend the celebrations to the next day June 8Most of June 8 was spent attending work calls At dayrsquos end they started drinking and ordered pizzas The party was in full swing eventually with music and dancing tooAround 11 pm Salian received a FaceTime call from her close friend Ankita who lived in London Salian moved to her bedroom away from the noise Their conversation lasted 70 minutes while the party continued in the living room Rai said in a 2022 interview that by the end of the call Salian was emotionalBy this time everyone seemed to be high The friends checked on Salian but she was in the bathroom They returned to the living room A few minutes later they looked for her again but in vain The bathroom door was open They looked for her in the house but could not find her They noticed after a few minutes that the sliding windows of the master bedroom were open When Rai peeped out he saw her lifeless below The friends took her to hospital where she was declared dead though some reports claimed that she was alive when foundThe case was in the news for a few days since Salian was wellknown because of her celebrity connections and the nature of the death shocked many Conjecture gossip and social media posts added theory upon theory The Mumbai police registered an Accidental Death Report ADR at that timeWith inputs from PTI