Five Years Passed Since Disha Salian's Death, Why Investigation Still Not Over? Bombay High Court Questions Mumbai Police

The Bombay High Court on Thursday questioned the Maharashtra Government over its slow paced investigation in the death of Disha Salian, the manager of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale sought to know why the Mumbai Police could not complete its investigation in the case even 5 years after Salian's death. "Five years have passed and still you say probe is going on...What is this? Five years have already passed... Some one has died... You need to only ascertain if it was a suicide, culpable homicide amounting to murder or not amounting to murder etc." Justice Gadkari told Public Prosecutor Mrinmay Deshmukh. At this, the Public Prosecutor explained the judges that the investigation is going on and that they are trying to rule out all the possibilities and thus have re-sent the CCTV footages for forensic tests. Going through the petition, the judges then sought to know why the Police was reluctant to share at least the basic documents of the case with the petitioner - Salian's father Satish. "What is the difficulty in giving basic documents to the father? He is covered by section 2(W)(a) of the CrPC, which defines 'victim.' What is this difficulty? Please take instructions on this," the judges said. Responding to the bench, Deshmukh submitted that the police has recorded the statements of both Satish Salian and his wife thrice and every time they said that they have no allegations against anyone for the death of their daughter. "Initially they said no allegations against anyone...In 2025, recently the raised this contention and made allegations...," the Prosecutor submitted. The bench sought to know as to why the statements were recorded again and again of the same witnesses (Disha's parents). To which, Deshmukh responded that the police recorded their supplementary statements. "We had even recorded the supplementary statements of the said petitioner and even then he did not raise any allegations...," Deshmukh clarified. During the course of hearing, the judges sought a copy of the statements of Satish Salian, and after going through the same made some queries to Deshmukh, who sought time to respond to the same. The bench made it clear that it was not asking Deshmukh to share all the documents of the case with Satish but only the basic ones. "We are not asking you to share all the documents but only the basic documents we are on... Under the law, is he entitled... You consider this and make a statement on the next hearing," the judges said. The bench also asked Deshmukh to get instructions on whether the "final cause certificate" or the "Post Mortem" report too could be given to Satish apart from his own statements. Meanwhile, Satish's lawyer Nilesh Ojha submitted that Deshmukh made a "factually and legally" incorrect statement as in an earlier affidavit, the police had stated that everything in the case is investigated and that nothing further remains to be proved. The bench will further hear the matter on December 11.

Five Years Passed Since Disha Salian's Death, Why Investigation Still Not Over? Bombay High Court Questions Mumbai Police

Narsi Benwal

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