Mumbai police form SIT to further probe Sushant Singh Rajput’s ex-manager Disha Salian’s death

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis had in December 2022 announced the fromatuion of the SIT in the legislative assembly. The order specifying the names of the SIT members was announced on Tuesday.

The SIT will be led by Rajiv Jain the Additional Commissioner of Police (North Region), while Deputy Commissioner of Police Ajay Bansal will supervise it and Malvani police station senior inspector Chimaji Adhav will investigate the case.

An official said the role of the SIT will be to re-verify findings of the probe conducted earlier as well as undertake an investigation into fresh facts or allegations. The SIT will review the earlier probe and conduct an inquiry to ascertain if there is substance in the newly found evidence and allegations.

The SIT’s formation comes a day after the state home department wrote to Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar seeking a directive to reopen the case into Salian’s death and determine if any new evidence had surfaced to conduct a further probe.

“A lot of discussions are taking place and many questions are being raised over the Disha Salian death case. The recent developments in this matter have led to the possibility of the emergence of new forms of evidence, thereby necessitating a review of the case. In view of this fact, if any new evidence is found, the executive magistrate will be informed and necessary action will be taken to continue the investigation,” a letter to the Mumbai Police Commissioner dated December 11 stated. It was after this letter that the Mumbai police formed the SIT.

Last year during the winter session of the state legislature, Salian’s death was raised by MLAs from the BJP and Shinde Sena on the floor of the house and BJP MLA Nitesh Rane had linked Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray to the case and said a narco test be conducted on Aaditya Thackeray to unravel the mystery behind Salian’s death.

Following the aggressive protest by both BJP and Shinde Sena, Fadnavis had announced that the case will be probed by an SIT if new evidence is available. “The case is with Mumbai police. Those who have any evidence regarding this case should come forward with it. We will probe it through an SIT,” Fadnavis had said.

Reacting to the formation of the SIT, Uddhav Thackeray said he did not receive any official information about it and hit back at the government stating that Sena UBT too would give information about them (the government). “We don’t have any information about this (SIT formation). When we get information officially, we too will expose them. We have been following our culture for so long, but if you make such fake allegations…then we will give the real information, then they will have to face this when this comes their way,” Uddhav said.

The Malvani Police in Mumbai had registered an accidental death report (ADR) in the Salian case after she died on June 8, 2020 after she had fallen from the 14th floor of her fiance’s residence. The police had claimed that there was no foul play in her death and that she might have committed suicide due to a few setbacks in her professional life due to the Covid lockdown and other reasons.

However after tactor Sushant Singh Rajput had died on June 14, Salian’s death was linked to it and several conspiracy theories had done the rounds on social media, claiming hers and Sushant’s deaths were linked to then minister Aaditya Thackeray and his Bollywood friends. Some BJP leaders had termed Rajput’s death as murder.

While Rajput’s death had been probed by the CBI, Salian’s case was with the Malvani police in Mumbai.

Disha Salian worked for a talent management agency that earlier handled Sushant Singh Rajput’s account, however it emerged that both of them had met just once.