What serious questions did the court raise in the case of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput's former manager?
Author, Vineet Bhalla
Designation, BBC correspondent
Published 3 hours ago
Reading Time: 7 minutes
In the case of the death of late celebrity manager Disha Salian, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday handed over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), pointing out several serious flaws in the investigation conducted by the Mumbai Police so far.
This matter is of the intervening night of June 8 and 9 of the year 2020. Disha Salian died under suspicious circumstances after falling from the 12th floor of a multi-storey building in Malad area of Mumbai. At that time, after investigation, the police had claimed that Disha's death was suicide.
Disha's father Satish Salian had filed a petition in the High Court alleging that his daughter's death was not an ordinary suicide or an accident.
The petition claimed that Disha worked with actor Sushant Singh Rajput, she had come to know about the objectionable activities of some influential people, due to which influential people had conspired to kill her.
The father alleges that Disha was gang raped before the murder and some police officers created a false story by destroying the real evidence.
Petition for CBI investigation
During the hearing, government lawyer Shishir Hire, representing the state government and the police, strongly opposed the CBI investigation. He told the court that the police had conducted a detailed investigation in this case twice.
Shishire Hire told the court, "The first investigation was completed on October 26, 2020. It was later closed. Subsequently, on the instructions of the state government, the investigation was conducted again in December 2023. Its report was submitted in April 2026."
Hirey said that the conclusion of both the investigations was the same that Disha Salian had committed suicide and there was no conspiracy in it.
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According to the police, the statements of Disha's friends revealed that she was in depression due to the failure of some of her business deals, the behavior of her friends and differences with her father. According to the police, he had consumed alcohol on the night of the incident.
The police did this entire investigation under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Legally, Section 174 empowers the police to investigate only what is the apparent cause of death under suspicious circumstances.
This is not a detailed investigation of any cognizable offence. This is done after the First Information Report (FIR) is registered under Section 154 of CrPC.
What questions did the judges raise?
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The division bench of Justice Sarang V. Kotwal and Justice Ranjit Sinha Raja Bhosale rejected the arguments of the state government and said that the investigation conducted under Section 174 was completely inadequate for the case. The court found several flaws in the police story which make the case suspicious.
The court first raised questions on the time limit of police investigation and inspection of the incident site.
The CCTV footage revealed that immediately after the incident, between 1:00 am and 2:14 am, police officers were present at the flat from which Salian had allegedly jumped. But the police did not do the Panchnama at that time.
The Panchnama was done at 9:40 am, about nine hours after the incident. The court asked what the police were doing there at night and why no official record of it was kept.
Questions were also raised on the timing of the Accidental Death Report (ADR) filed by the police. Police registered ADR at 3:07 am.
It was written that the statements of the parents of the deceased have been recorded and they do not suspect anyone. But according to the father's own statement, he had received a call from the police at 3:00 in the night and he reached the hospital at 4:00 in the morning. There he got the news of his daughter's death.
The court raised questions on how the statement of the father who reached the hospital at 4 in the morning could be quoted in the report recorded at 3:07.
The court also raised questions on the claims of the police regarding the incident site and evidence. Disha Salian's friends had told the police that she had locked herself in the master bedroom and her fiance had forcibly opened the door.
The court asked that if the door was opened forcibly, there should have been signs of breakage on the lock or the door. But there is no mention of any such loss in the police panchnama.
Additionally, despite the fall from the 12th floor, police did not find any blood at the scene. However, two eyewitnesses present there told the police that they had heard a loud sound of someone falling and had seen that the girl was bleeding from her head.
Many questions on post mortem report
The court also drew attention to the shortcomings in the post-mortem report and forensic investigation. According to the post-mortem report, despite falling face down from the 12th floor, Disha Salian had a small cut of only one centimeter on her chin. None of the bones in his face or nose were broken.
The judges said that it is very difficult to accept that not a single bone of the face is broken after falling from such a height.
The chemical analyzer of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) himself had written a letter to the police expressing suspicion that in case of a fall from such a height, there was not as much blood on the clothes as there should have been. In this case, the police had written a letter to the doctor who conducted the post-mortem asking why there were no clothes on the dead body.
The court objected to this and said that this is very surprising because the police themselves had prepared the Panchnama to seize the clothes of the deceased from the spot, when the police themselves had seized the clothes, then why were they asking this question to the doctor.
The court also took seriously a major lapse in forensic investigation in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment. It was written in the post-mortem report that 'vaginal swab' and 'anal swab' had been sent for testing, but the forensic lab found 'smear on slide' inside the envelope. When the lab raised questions on this, the medical officer replied that swab had been written in the form by mistake.
Moreover, Disha Salian's laptop and mobile phone, which were the most important electronic evidence in the case, were not seized on the day of the incident. These were seized several days later on June 17 from Disha Salian's fiance.
In view of all these shortcomings, the High Court said that although the court is not conducting any small trial, the circumstances are so suspicious that the truth cannot be revealed without registering an FIR.
CBI investigation ordered
The state government had suggested that the petitioner should approach the magistrate's court and demand an investigation.
But the court rejected it, saying that the magistrate did not have the authority to order a CBI investigation and that the police did not investigate a cognizable offense despite getting ample opportunity.
The court directed that the officer in-charge of CBI's Mumbai region should appoint an experienced and senior investigating officer for this case. This officer will record the statement of Satish Salian and immediately file an FIR.
Officials of Malvani police station in Mumbai have been instructed to hand over all the documents and evidence related to the case to CBI.
However, the court rejected the petitioner's demand that the investigation be under the supervision of the High Court. The court said that there is no reason to doubt the impartiality of CBI.
The judges also instructed the investigating agency that no innocent person should be harassed during the investigation and no one should be considered an accused unless there is sufficient evidence. Also, the investigating agency has been asked to deal sensitively with the victim's family.
After the order, Satish Salian told IANS outside the court that he had received the "gift of victory of truth". He thanked the court that he got justice.
He said that people often told him that there would be no benefit in fighting the case and that he was wasting his time. He expressed hope that "there should be a true investigation."
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