Attempt to malign me, says Aaditya Thackeray as BJP seeks arrest in Disha Salian case

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday said there were efforts to malign him in connection with the June 2020 death of Disha Salian, the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, and that he will respond to the allegations in court.

“Ruling parties do not have anything to say so they are resorting to this. For the past five years, they have been trying to defame us. Now it is in the court so we will respond (to the allegations) there,”

Thackeray told reporters after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought the arrest of the accused in Disha Salian’s death.

The target of the BJP’s attack was Aaditya Thackeray, and came against the backdrop of Disha’s father, Satish Salian, announcing that he has moved the Bombay high court to seek a fresh probe into the circumstances around his daughter’s death in June 2020. The petition also demanded the registration of a FIR against Aaditya Thackeray and transfer of the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

BJP’s Andheri West legislator Ameet Satam raised the case in the assembly on Thursday, seeking details of the special investigation team that was constituted in 2023 to look into the case again. Fisheries and port minister Nitesh Rane said that as per a Supreme Court judgement, a person against whom such allegations are made should be arrested immediately, and demanded to know whether “the former minister” will be arrested. Tourism minister Shambhuraj Desai seconded the demand made by Rane and there should be equal treatment to all and nobody should be treated with different yardstick.

As the ruling alliance MLAs entered the Well of the House to press their demand for action against Thackeray, assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar adjourned the house for ten minutes.

After the house reassembled, minister of state for home Yogesh Kadam said the SIT probe was still going on, and Salian’s father had made the state government a party to his petition. ‘’We will act as per the court orders. Those who are guilty, no matter how powerful they are, will not be spared. Law is same for all,’’ he said.

Disha Salian, 28, fell to her death from a highrise in Malad on June 8, 2020. An Accidental Death Report was registered at Malvani police station in the case. Sushant Singh Rajput, 34, was found hanging at his apartment in suburban Bandra on June 14.

The Mumbai police had earlier closed the probe in the case as no evidence of foul play was found. After BJP leaders continued to link Thackeray to the case, the Eknath Shinde-led government set up a special investigation team in December 2023 to go over the evidence in the case.