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HC orders CBI probe into Disha Salian's death: ‘No one can be made accused unless...’
The high court said no one must be treated as an accused unless the investigating officer finds sufficient material against the person.
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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of Disha Salian of former celebrity manager Disha Salian in 2020.
A bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale said the CBI shall register an FIR and record the statement of the deceased's father, Satish Salian, but no person shall be treated as an accused until and unless there is sufficient material gathered against them during the probe.
The court ordered the Mumbai police to hand over all case papers to the probe agency. "In case the investigation reveals that no case is made out, then the CBI shall file the appropriate summary report before the court concerned," the bench said. Satish Salian would be at liberty to challenge the report, it added.
Disha died on June 8, 2020, after falling off the 12th floor of a residential building in Mumbai's Malad area. The city police had subsequently registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR).
The police later claimed that Disha's death was a case of suicide.
Satish, however, filed a petition in the high court last year alleging that his daughter was gang-raped and murdered. He also accused the police of suppressing facts to protect some influential people in the case.
The woman's father sought a CBI probe into her death and for an FIR to be registered against Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray.
In his plea, he claimed that his daughter was found dead under mysterious circumstances in June 2020. He alleged that she was raped and murdered, and subsequently there was a politically orchestrated cover-up to protect certain influential persons.
