On March 19, Disha Salian’s father filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, seeking a probe into his daughter’s death and called for interrogating UBT Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray.
Advocate Nilesh C Ojha, lawyer of Satish Salian, on March 20 levelled serious allegations against former Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray, labelling him as an “accused” in the Disha Salian death case.
He also accused former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of “not wanting” to take action against Thackeray. Furthermore, Ojha alleged that “corrupt” police officials tried to cover up the case.
“During the murder, Uddhav Thackeray’s government was there (in Maharashtra), and the accused was his son Aaditya Thackeray. The corrupt police officials tried to cover up the case. After 2.5 years, Shinde’s government came, and Fadnavis was the Home Minister. This matter has not come all of a sudden,” Ojha told ANI.
Clarifying that the matter was not being raised “suddenly”, Ojha said that the Eknath Shinde government had formed a State Investigation Team (SIT) in December 2023. A written complaint submitted in January 2024 also asked for an FIR to be registered.
“In September 2023, we filed a PIL, which also raised the issue of registering an FIR and taking action. The state government formed an SIT in December 2023. A written complaint was also submitted on January 12, 2024, which asked for an FIR to be registered for gang rape and murder against Aaditya Thackeray, Sooraj Pancholi and others,” he said. As this happened, Ojha said that Disha’s father approached him to file the petition.
“Nothing happened, but the conversations around it made Disha Salian’s father realise that he had been lied to, and he came to us. After that, his petition was drafted and filed,” he said.
Demanding that the police officials who failed to register an FIR be penalised, Ojha said that action must also be taken against the SIT official as per the Supreme Court’s guidelines on rape and murder cases.
“Supreme Court has said multiple times in its guidelines that FIR must be registered after a complaint is filed in rape and murder cases. Otherwise, the concerned police officials must be penalised as per the relevant sections of IPC. In this case, they have failed to register a case in over a year. This is a serious matter, and action must be taken against the SIT official,” he said.
“The affidavit filed by Aaditya Thackeray stated lies that he was given a clean chit by the CBI in the Disha Salian case…Anil Deshmukh also didn’t want any action (on Aaditya Thackeray),” Ojha added.
Late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s father, KK Singh supported the Public Interest Litigation filed by Disha Salian’s father seeking a probe into his daughter’s death, as he expressed hope that a conclusion could be reached on both the incidents.
#WATCH | Patna, Bihar: On Disha Salian death case, Actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father, KK Singh, says, "…Whatever he (Disha's father) has done is right; at least a conclusion will come out whether it was suicide or murder, and Sushant's case will also come up and it will… pic.twitter.com/mpJcuefPCG
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2025
“I don’t know his reasons and motivation for moving the court, but what he has done is right and if through this we can get a conclusion on whether it was a suicide or murder, and in this Sushant’s case can also be known on what happened,” KK Singh told ANI.
Disha Salian, who was a celebrity manager, was found dead on June 8, 2020. In 2023, the Mumbai Police formed a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe Disha Salian’s death. The Mumbai Police registered an accidental death case in the matter.
