'Disha Salian's body found 10 feet away': Lawyer raises doubts over suicide claim

The Bombay High Court questioned Mumbai police’s decision to close the Disha Salian death inquiry and said several aspects of the case required scrutiny.

The Bombay high court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea by deceased celebrity manager Disha Salian’s father, Satish Salian, seeking an independent and transparent probe into her 2020 death, observing that several aspects of the case required scrutiny.

The court questioned the police closure of the Disha Salian death inquiry while hearing her father Satish Salian’s plea seeking an independent probe.

A division bench of Justices Sarang V Kotwal and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale questioned Mumbai police’s decision to close the inquiry and said a proper investigation should be carried out before ruling out the possibility of a further probe.

Disha, who briefly worked with actor Sushant Singh Rajput, died after falling from the 14th floor of a residential building in Malad on June 8, 2020. The police registered an accidental death report, but Rajput’s death by suicide six days later fuelled intense speculation about the circumstances leading to the two deaths and a possible link between the cases. The police, however, ruled out any foul play.

Disha’s father alleged that the story about Disha’s death by suicide was created and publicised even before the police started their probe. He filed a petition in the high court in March 2025 challenging the police’s version.

The petition claimed that Disha was raped and murdered, and accused police officers, politicians and other influential figures of suppressing the truth. It also sought action against members of the special investigation team constituted by the state government in December 2023 to probe the case, as well as the transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Salian’s advocate Nilesh Ojha said the police were bound to investigate the matter properly before closing the case. He added that the concerned authorities concluded that there was neither rape nor murder and closed the case without furnishing the investigation report to the family for five years.

Ojha also questioned the circumstances in which Disha’s dead body was found 10 feet away from the building, indicating that it could not be a suicide case. “We got it analysed and found out that the body should have fallen straight down rather than 10 feet away,” he said.

Public prosecutor Shishir Hiray, appearing for the State government, submitted that after the Maharashtra government ordered reassessment of the accidental death report (ADR) in December 2022, the police also examined the CCTV footage and recorded witness statements of six people, and “none of them alleged any foul play in the case.”

The court, however, emphasised that a proper investigation must be carried out so that “no prejudice is caused to anyone”. It also questioned why the police had continued the inquiry for years if they did not suspect any foul play. “When there was no suspicion, why did you go on enquiring for six years,” the bench asked.

The court stressed that the father’s grievance could not be brushed aside. “We are only concerned that a father has lost his daughter and some probe must be carried out as per law. We aren’t entering into any politics as to who did it,” it remarked.

The bench also questioned the timing of the police’s action, saying that while the father had approached the court several years after the incident, the police themselves had reopened the inquiry three years after the original closure of the matter.