The HC said a senior officer of the CBI to conduct the probe.
MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Wednesday pronounced its judgment in the Disha Salian case and directed registration of a first information report (FIR) for her June 8, 2020 death at a suburban Malad building in Mumbai.
The Bombay HC appointed a senior officer of the CBI to conduct the probe. The HC also directed not to name anyone as accused in the FIR. “No one shall be treated as an accused unless and until there is suitable material against them, the HC directed.
Salian, 28, was a celebrity manager and worked with the late film actor Sushant Singh who died just days later that month on June 14, aged 34 in his Bandra house.
On Friday Justices SV Kotwal and RR Bhonsale had reserved for orders her father Satish Salian’s petition to probe her death as a murder arguing through his counsel Nilesh Ojha that “suspicious circumstances’ surrounded it.
He had sought investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and said the HC did not lack powers to direct registration of an FIR and probe to ensure complete justice for her family.
On Wednesday the HC said : The officer is attached to CBI senior officer in this case and register the FIR, no one be detained unless there's a reasonable suspicion raised, BNSS and Summary report be filed if nothing is found.
At a three day hearing the bench repeatedly questioned the State on why it was still conducting an inquiry under section 174 of the erstwhile criminal procedure code (CrPC)—a provision which it said had limited applicability.
The purpose of section 174/175 is limited to ascertaining ‘cause of death’ , as the first line of probe on registration of an Accidental Death Report (ADR).
The inquiry that was closed within three months was reopened in 2023 following social media claims, prompting the HC to question the validity of such an extended inquiry.
The State represented by chief public prosecutor Shishir Hirey maintained her death was by suicide, following an alleged fall from allegedly the 12th floor of the residential building.
Salian’s petition claimed former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya Thackeray to be an alleged suspect.
Salian’s counsel Ojha citing documents, alleged discrepancies and suspicious circumstances to seek a thorough probe as he argued a cognizable offence as claimed by her father, ought to be registered as an FIR as mandated by law.
The HC on being shown documents including the Panchanama, photographs of the body, other details from the inquiry so far and raised questions on various aspects it said were “suspicious’’ including whether injuries were consistent with a fall from such height and details regarding clothes.
Hirey argued that the injuries included a skull fracture consistent with such fall. Hirey also sought to justify the ADR level inquiry and submitted witness statements and forensics which he said ruled out foul play or any alleged sexual assault on her.
The HC clarified that it was not drawing conclusions at this stage but questioned the what had State done for so long jn the last five years, when the prosecution sought dismissal of the father’s plea saying it was belatedly filed .
Senior counsel Sudeep Pasbola appearing for Thackeray who had intervened in the matter said the State’s line of probe was not barred by law but also cannot extend indefinitely.
Pasbola said Salian has an alternate remedy in law to first go to Magistrate with a private complaint if no FIR is registered and could not directly come to the HC.
Pasbola also argued that allegations agaisnt Thackeray were “motivated’’ untenable and stem from a “political rivalry’$.
The HC said it was concerned not with any political overtones but only with sanctity of law to provide the family a closure.
Ojha argued since the plea was for CBI probe the HC had to be approached as a magistrate lacks the power to direct such probe.
Four-and-a half years after it began probing the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, last March, the CBI was reported to have closed the case and given a clean chit to actor Rhea Chakraborty, bringing curtains on the case that had gripped the country in 2020.
Last year Satish Salian also alleged his daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered and had approached HC seeking the CBI probe into her death as he also alleged both deaths are interconnected and part of a larger conspiracy.
