Disha Salian’s father seeks FIR against Aaditya Thackeray, Param Bir Singh, others

MUMBAI: Satish Salian, father of the deceased celebrity manager Disha Salian, on Tuesday met the joint commissioner of police (crime), Lakhmi Gautam and formally submitted a 75-page complaint seeking an FIR to be registered in the alleged gang rape and murder of his daughter in June 2020 and cover-up of the case.

Salian wrote in his complaint that his daughter was gang-raped and murdered by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aditya Thackeray, his bodyguards and others, but it was portrayed by police officers as a death by suicide to save the accused. He also alleged that former police commissioner Param Bir Singh was the mastermind behind the cover-up. The complaint also lists dismissed police inspector Sachin Vaze, and actors Rhea Chakraborty, Dino Morea and Suraj Pancholi, among others, as the accused.

Disha Salian died on June 8, 2020, after purportedly jumping off the 14th floor of a residential building in Malad, according to the police. Her father had earlier accepted that his daughter had died by suicide. In March 2022, her parents even filed a police complaint against Union minister Narayan Rane and his son, Nitesh Rane, after they tried to link Aaditya Thackeray to Disha’s death.

However, Satish Salian has now alleged that the circumstances surrounding Disha’s death were questionable. He said that instead of conducting an impartial and scientific investigation, the Mumbai police had hastily closed the case as a suicide without considering forensic evidence, circumstantial proof, and eyewitness testimonies. Salian had approached the high court last week with a petition to reinvestigate Disha’s death, which blew up into a major political controversy.

Disha Salian was the manager of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who allegedly died by suicide at his Bandra home on June 14, 2020, six days after Salian’s death. On March 22, 2025, the Central Bureau of Investigation ruled out any foul play in his death, as suspected by his family, and closed the case.