Just days after the CBI took over the case of the death of Disha Salian, the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, an unidentified woman has emerged as a missing link in the murder case registered. The woman, who was among the three people who brought Disha Salian to Mumbai’s Shatabdi Hospital on the night of June 8, as per the statement recorded from a police constable on duty at the hospital. While the two men among the three have been identified, other accounts on record do not mention a woman being there. The CBI on Monday registered an FIR under sections for murder and related offences, officials said.
“The then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, father of Aaditya Thackeray, and others played a significant role in the conspiracy and subsequent cover-up,” the CBI FIR stated.
The FIR lists Shiv Sena UBT MLA Aditya Thackeray, actors Dino Morea, Suraj Pancholi and Rhea Chakraborty, and the doctors and staff concerned with the delayed postmortem, among those who will face investigation.
“The concerned public servants and police officers are also liable to be investigated for destruction or suppression of case papers, files and other public records, fabrication of official records, and misuse of public funds, manpower and police machinery for unlawful purposes and for shielding the offenders,” it added.
According to the statement recorded on June 15, 2020, constable Santosh Kachariat Gungune cited information he received from a hospital doctor that Salian was brought in by two men and a woman. Salian’s fiancé Rohan Rai and others connected with the case have named Himanshu Shikhare and Indraneel Vaidya as the 2 men who took her to the hospital. Salian died after falling from the 14th floor of a residential building in Mumbai’s Malad on June 15. She was taken to Shatabdi Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. It is still unknown if the police have secured the CCTV footage from the hospital cameras, parking or the emergency areas.
CBI probe was ordered on September 2nd based on a petition by Salian’s father Satish Salian who alleged lapses by Mumbai police in the investigation. The court pulled up the police for failing to register an FIR for six years. It said that the ‘investigation raises more questions than answers and pointed to glaring discrepancies’. It also noted that Salian’s family had not been given copies of the postmortem report and the accidental death report, even six years after the death. Police had registered an accidental death and after an inquiry said the former manager died by suicide.
Satish Shalian last year filed a petition in the High Court alleging that his daughter was murdered. Last week he recorded his statement before the CBI where he alleged that several people, including Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray, played a major role in alleged conspiracy and cover-up.