CCTV footage, postmortem reports, father’s statement: Why Mumbai police closed enquiry into Disha Salian’s death

Salian had died by suicide on June 8, 2020, a week before the actor’s death by suicide a week later. Rajput’s case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has in the past two years neither mentioned any details of the probe nor taken action against anyone.

The officers who had probed the Salian case earlier said that the enquiry was closed as there was no evidence of foul play. The police also did not find any evidence to corroborate the allegations made at the time on social media linking Salian’s death to the actor’s death, claiming they were both murdered.

Following the deaths of Salian and Rajput, Union minister Narayan Rane had claimed on social media platforms that the two deaths were linked and that a “politician” played a role in Salian’s death.

An officer who was part of the probe said that they had made a list of allegations that had been made regarding her death and found no evidence of the same.

On the allegation that she had “partied with politicians” days before her death, they checked the CCTV cameras at her fiancé’s building where she was staying. “In the days she was there, she just came out once to take delivery for something she had ordered. She did not attend any party outside,” the officer said.

The allegation that she was pregnant was proved wrong by the post-mortem report.

Lastly, the allegation that there were no clothes on her when her body was found on the ground floor of the building was negated by the statement of her father who came to the spot soon after her death, the officer added.

An officer said that the Mumbai police had inquired into Salian’s death as per procedure in cases where an accidental death report (ADR) is registered.

A senior Mumbai police officer told The Indian Express, “In 2021, the investigating officer (IO) of the case after investigating the matter for several months sent a report to the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) for ‘final summary’ as he was convinced that there was no foul play in her death.”

The documents included the postmortem report, the inquest panchnama, the house search panchnama and statements of her family members. The ACP then summarised the case.

The officer said that while generally ADRs are “summarised” or closed much sooner if no foul play is found, in this case, it was delayed as several allegations were made after her death.