‘All this looks like a part of conspiracy’: Anil Deshmukh on Disha Salian’s father’s plea for CBI probe

WASHIM (Maharashtra): Responding to Disha Salian’s father approaching the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe and an FIR against Aaditya Thackeray in her death case, Maharashtra’s former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday said that the developments seem like a conspiracy.

Speaking to media, Deshmukh said, “I am taking information on the plea filed by Disha Salian’s father. All this now looks like a part of a conspiracy”.

#WATCH | Washim, Maharashtra | On Disha Salian’s father approaching Bombay HC seeking CBI probe & demanding FIR against Aaditya Thackeray in the death case, NCP-SCP leader & former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh says, “I am taking information on the plea filed by Disha… pic.twitter.com/qvgI8A6n64

— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2025

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Minister Uday Samant has said “It is not right to make political comments and do politics on this”. NCP-SCP MLA Rohit Pawar has claimed that the BJP will politicize the issue and push it forward, as elections are scheduled in Bihar in four months and in Mumbai in six months.

“Disha Salian’s father has gone to court. He has named Aditya Thackeray, but we are sure Aditya Thackeray has nothing to do with this. We are with him, but let the court decide. If a person is trying to get justice, he should get justice. But if you look at the BJP, they will now start doing politics on it. Four years ago Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide. Immediately after the suicide, such banners were put up in Bihar only for the Bihar elections. Now after four years, the BJP will take this issue forward because there are elections in Bihar after four months and elections in Mumbai after six months”, Pawar said.

Disha, who was a celebrity manager, was found dead on June 8, 2020, days before Sushant was found hanging in his flat in suburban Bandra, Mumbai. In 2023, the Mumbai Police formed a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe Disha Salian’s death. The Mumbai police registered an accidental death case in the matter.

Sushant, 34, was found dead at his Bandra residence on June 14, 2020, which created a huge controversy, with the investigation later being handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. His postmortem report stated the cause of death was asphyxia. The postmortem was conducted at Mumbai’s Cooper Hospital.

#WATCH | Thane | Disha Salian’s father’s lawyer, Nilesh C Ojha says, “At the time she (Disha Salian) was murdered, there was Uddhav Thackeray govt in power in the state. Since his (Uddhav Thackeray) son, Aaditya Thackeray, was the accused, the corrupt police officials covered up… pic.twitter.com/bZP13I4Zqu

— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2025

Meanwhile, advocate Nilesh C Ojha, lawyer of Satish Salian, on Thursday, levelled serious allegations against former Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray, labelling him as an “accused” in the Disha Salian death case. He also accused former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of “not wanting” to take action against Thackeray. Furthermore, Ojha alleged that “corrupt” police officials tried to cover up the case.

“During the murder, Uddhav Thackeray’s government was there (in Maharashtra), and the accused was his son Aaditya Thackeray. The corrupt police officials tried to cover up the case. After 2.5 years, Shinde’s government came, and Fadnavis was the Home Minister. This matter has not come all of a sudden,” Ojha said.

Clarifying that the matter was not being raised “suddenly”, Ojha said that the Eknath Shinde government had formed a State Investigation Team (SIT) in December 2023. A written complaint submitted in January 2024 also asked for an FIR to be registered.

“In September 2023, we filed a PIL, which also raised the issue of registering an FIR and taking action. The state government formed an SIT in December 2023. A written complaint was also submitted on January 12, 2024, which asked for an FIR to be registered for gang rape and murder against Aaditya Thackeray, Sooraj Pancholi and others,” he said.

As this happened, Ojha said that Disha’s father approached him to file the petition. “Nothing happened, but the conversations around it made Disha Salian’s father realise that he had been lied to, and he came to us. After that, his petition was drafted and filed”, he said.

Demanding that the police officials who failed to register an FIR be penalised, Ojha said that action must also be taken against the SIT official as per the Supreme Court’s guidelines on rape and murder cases.

“Supreme Court has said multiple times in its guidelines that FIR must be registered after a complaint is filed in rape and murder cases. Otherwise, the concerned police officials must be penalised as per the relevant sections of IPC. In this case, they have failed to register a case in over a year. This is a serious matter, and action must be taken against the SIT official,” he said.

“The affidavit filed by Aaditya Thackeray stated lies that he was given a clean chit by the CBI in the Disha Salian case…Anil Deshmukh also didn’t want any action (on Aaditya Thackeray),” Ojha added.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve on Wednesday accused the BJP of ‘conspiring to defame’ party leader Aaditya Thackeray by raising questions on him in connection with the Disha Salian death case.

“I think this matter has gone to the court. We have no idea what he (Disha’s father) has said, but Aaditya Thackeray is a mature leader, a young leader. The Bharatiya Janata Party is conspiring to defame him by putting pressure on him. We don’t need to answer to this conspiracy. The court will answer,” Ambadas Danve told media. (ANI)