Disha Salian case: What really happened that night?

Who was Disha Salian?
Disha Salian was a 28-year-old celebrity talent manager. She had an impressive portfolio, representing Bollywood actors Sushant Singh Rajput, Varun Sharma, Prachi Desai and Bharti Singh among others.

The fateful events
On the night of June 8, 2020, the 28-year-old Salian allegedly fell to her death from the 12th floor of her fiancé Rohan Rai’s apartment at Jankalyan Nagar in Malvani, Malad West. She is survived by her parents, Vasanti and Satish Salian.

About Rai and Salian
Rai and Salian first met in 2013 after he moved to Mumbai from Delhi. He was a model. In 2017, the couple got engaged at Salian’s parents’ home in central Mumbai. In 2018, Rai bought a two-bedroom apartment in the Malad high-rise, where they moved in together.

The leadup…
On June 6, 2020, Salian’s college friend Himanshu Shikre, who lived nearby, visited Rai’s apartment. The following day, Salian and her childhood friend Indraneel Vaidya, whose birthday was on May 25, had a joint birthday celebration at the Rai-Salian home. Salian’s birthday was on May 26. The gathering included Shikre, Vaidya, Resha Padwal and another friend, Deep Ajmera.

Satish Salian’s lawyer Nilesh Ojha. PIC/ANURAG AHIRE

Despite the lockdown, the friends held on to the tradition of celebrating their birthdays together. On June 7, all six of them partied. That night Shikre, Padwal, Vaidya, and Ajmera stayed over at Rai’s apartment. The group decided to extend the celebrations to the next day, June 8.

Party on
Most of June 8 was spent attending work calls. At day’s end, they started drinking and ordered pizzas. The party was in full swing eventually, with music and dancing too.

The London call
Around 11 pm, Salian received a FaceTime call from her close friend Ankita, who lived in London. Salian moved to her bedroom, away from the noise. Their conversation lasted 70 minutes while the party continued in the living room. Rai said in a 2022 interview that by the end of the call, Salian was emotional.

Sushant Singh Rajput, the most high-profile of Disha Salian’s clients, whose death a week after hers sparked a furore

Where was Disha?
By this time, everyone seemed to be high. The friends checked on Salian but she was in the bathroom. They returned to the living room. A few minutes later they looked for her again but in vain. The bathroom door was open. They looked for her in the house, but could not find her. They noticed after a few minutes that the sliding windows of the master bedroom were open. When Rai peeped out, he saw her lifeless below. The friends took her to hospital where she was declared dead, though some reports claimed that she was alive when found.

What happened later
The case was in the news for a few days, since Salian was well-known because of her celebrity connect, and the nature of the death shocked many. Conjecture, gossip and social media posts added theory upon theory. The Mumbai police registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) at that time.

The Sushant connection
Then, a week later on June 14, 2020, actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Bandra home. He was 34 years old. The cause of his death was ruled a suicide, with reports saying he died of asphyxia by hanging. Controversy was ablaze with speculation of murder. Social media and television channels too exploded with theories that Rajput had known something about Disha Salian’s death, that both were linked, and that he had been killed to be silenced. So fiercely did this rage on that at one time, opinion was cleaved between those who believed that Rajput died by suicide and that he was murdered because he would spill the beans on Salian. A final post-mortem report on June 25, 2020 reiterating the cause of death did little to quell the speculation, which was now in overdrive. Some reports said Rajput was upset and depressed about Salian’s death, others claimed he was threatened, and yet others maintained that he was killed.

Regent Galaxy, the Malad high-rise from where Sushant Singh’s manager Disha Salian allegedly fell to her death in June 2020. Pics/Shadab Khan

Investigations and closure
Salian’s parents accepted the police investigation, which concluded suicide as the cause of death. Rajput’s death and the claims that followed, however, led to a reinvestigation. The final closure report reaffirmed suicide, with no note found. Statements from Salian’s friends, parents, and all those who visited the building between June 4 and June 9, 2020, were recorded. Additionally, statements of everyone who called her on or before the day of the incident were documented.

Call data records, CCTV footage of the building and a clone of Disha’s mobile phone data were preserved. Statements from witnesses, relatives, and friends were also considered. Based on all collected evidence, it was concluded that ADR number 85/2020, registered with Malvani police, was a case of suicide. The reason for the suicide was not explicitly disclosed, and no suicide note was found. The police recorded detailed statements of Salian’s parents, who did not raise any complaints, leading to the registration of an Accidental Death Report (ADR).

Why again, now?
Now, controversy has re-ignited after five years of Disha Salian’s death, with her father moving the Bombay High Court seeking a fresh investigation. Satish Salian also lodged a written complaint with the Mumbai Police Commissioner for the registration of an FIR against Aaditya Thackeray and others, accused of offences including gangrape and murder. He claims now that for a variety of reasons, he had been misled earlier into thinking there was no foul play, and political names are once again being bandied about.

The update

This paper recently reported that Disha Salian’s father, who filed a petition accusing certain high-profile persons in his daughter’s death, was named in the earlier police closure report as a factor contributing to his daughter’s state of depression on the night of her death. The closure report stated, among other things, that her father had misused his daughter’s earnings, spending the money on a female employee at his spice-making unit in Thane.

Satish Salian’s lawyer Nilesh Ojha said in response to this that as per the binding judgment of the Supreme Court, any closure report filed in an inquiry under Section 174 CrPC (Accidental Death Report/ADR) has no evidentiary value and cannot be relied upon by the accused in cases where cognisable offences are clearly disclosed. Therefore, the earlier closure report holds no legal weight, Ojha added.

With inputs by Mohar Basu and Samiullah Khan