Family members of deceased Disha Salian, former manager of Bollywood actor the late Sushant Singh Rajput, on Tuesday said that politicians are maligning the young woman's name by questioning the circumstances surrounding her death in 2020. Days earlier, Union minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane had addressed a press conference in which he made certain claims regarding the death of Disha Salian.
However, despite the emotional appeal made by Disha's family members, claims and counter-claims on the issue are being made, with Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil saying that the truth behind Disha's death will be exposed after March 7. "...no politics is happening over the Disha Salian case. Everything will be crystal clear after March 7. Don't worry. All the evidence will come out. Who was involved, who will have to go to jail... (everything will be exposed). What exactly happened in the Salian case is currently confined but it will come out after March 7," Patil told reporters in Kolhapur.
Earlier in the day, Disha Salian's mother Vasanti Salian made an emotional appeal to politicians to refrain from maligning the name of her daughter by questioning the circumstances surrounding her death. "I have lost my only daughter. These people are defaming us. They are dragging my daughter's name in their politics. This should stop. Let us live peacefully," Disha's mother Vasanti Salian told reporters at her residence in Mumbai while struggling to fight back tears.
Vasanti Salian has submitted a letter of complaint to Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar requesting that Salian family members should not be harassed or defamed. "We will be compelled to take certain steps if this goes on," she said in the presence of Pednekar and a team of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW).
A day earlier, the MSCW had issued notice to Mumbai Police in connection with the alleged suicide of Disha Salian and directed them to file a reply in the next two days, after Rane claimed that she was raped and murdered. Vasanti Salian said they had recorded their statements about Disha's death with the police and other authorities multiple times.
"We are satisfied with the investigation. Last time also we faced problems due to the media and politicians. So please leave us alone," she said, adding that we vote for politicians but they are defaming us. Salian, 28, allegedly committed suicide by jumping from a high-rise building in suburban Malad on June 8, 2020, six days before Rajput, 34, was found hanging at his apartment in suburban Bandra.
Speaking about the fateful day, Vasanti Salian said, "We and the police know what happened on that day. She (Disha) went to celebrate her birthday. The claims of political leaders that she was murdered etc are false and incorrect". Vasanti Salian said Disha was about to get married and she was with her childhood friends at the time of the incident.
"She was stressed after one of her business deals was cancelled," she added. Mayor Pednekar said that Disha's postmortem report is already out but despite that Narayan Rane and his son didn't believe it. "Her family members have already said that in that party Disha's friends were present. Please don't drag her family into this dirty politics. We have received the complaint from her family members and the Women's Commission will act on it,” she said.
Apart from Rajput, Salian had also managed the work of actors like Bharti Singh, Rhea Chakraborty and Varun Sharma. Last year, Mumbai Police closed the probe into the death of Salian as no evidence of any foul play emerged in the case. The police had also said that they didn't find any evidence to support several allegations linking Salian's death with that of Rajput.
