From left: Devendra Fadnavis, Sanjay Raut
Credit: PTI photo
Mumbai: As the Special Investigation Team of the Mumbai Police ruled out foul play concluding that film industry talent manager Disha Salian died by suicide, the Shiv Sena (UBT) sought an apology from Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and BJP minister Nitesh Rane.
Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Maha Vikas Aghadi partners Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) too lashed out at the BJP for politicising the issue.
Disha Salian (28) died on 8 June, 2020, after a fall from the 14th floor of an Galaxy Regent building at Malad just six days before Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput (34) died by suicide at his rented duplex flat in Mont Blanc building at Bandra. The city police had then registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) into the Disha Salian case while the Supreme Court ordered a probe into the SSR case which has now filed a closure report.
Former chief minister Narayan Rane and his son Nitesh Rane had been claiming that both the cases are murders and are linked to each other and have linked Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray, the son of Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray to the incident.
It may be mentioned that earlier this year Disha's father Satish Salian and his lawyer Nilesh Ojha visited the Mumbai Police headquarters at Crawford Market and filed a complaint saying that Disha’s death was a “gangrape-murder” case.
"Disha Salian had jumped off the window of a flat out of her own volition, and the postmortem report mentions no signs of sexual and/or physical assault. Even her postmortem report does not indicate anything suspicious about the death,” the police said in an affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court last month.
Reacting to the development, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut demanded an apology from Fadnavis and Nitesh Rane.
"The police report has clearly stated that Aaditya Thackeray had no involvement in Disha Salian's death. Yet, power was misused to malign his image and humiliate him,” he said.
NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar said: “BJP leaders and ministers from Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction have constantly hurled allegations at Aaditya Thackeray using foul and offensive language. The allegations were made for political mileage.”
“For the last five years, certain individuals have tried to tarnish my image. I never responded to them then, and I won’t respond now either,” Aaditya Thackeray said.
Nitesh Rane, however, insisted the matter was far from over. “The case is still before the court. Let it hear.”