Disha Salian’s father hands over pen-drive to CBI, contains ‘eye-witness’ statement

The father of deceased celebrity manager Disha Salian visited the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) office on Thursday and handed over a pen drive to the investigating officer.

One of Salian’s lawyers, A Agarwal, said that the pen drive given by Satish Salian on Thursday contained an eyewitness’s statement revealing how Disha was “murdered”. He said that the alleged eyewitness was “at the scene of the crime” and that, as the CBI now has the pen drive evidence provided by Salian, the agency is expected to proceed with the work of arresting the accused persons in the case and that the evidence will help the probe.

According to the lawyer, the CBI officials got the pen drive tested at their laboratory upon receiving it from Salian, prepared a report on its contents and proceeded to seize it as per procedure, in the presence of two independent witnesses.

The CBI officials also handed over a copy of the pen drive seizure report to Salian, bearing the latter’s signature and those of the witnesses, the lawyer said. The pen drive has four files, including the alleged eyewitness statement and “video evidence”, and could provide a chain of events related to the alleged crime, the lawyer claimed. The lawyer declined to reveal more, citing the sensitivity of the case and the need to protect the eyewitness’s confidentiality, adding that the evidence submitted on Thursday was linked to several accused.

Disha, who briefly worked with actor Sushant Singh Rajput, died after falling from the 12th floor of a building in Malad at about 2:25am on June 9, 2020.

The Malwani police registered an accidental death report in connection with the incident in 2020 and concluded that it was a suicide and that there was no evidence suggesting any foul play in it. A Special Investigation Team set up by the state government in December 2023 also found no foul play in Disha’s death.

Last year, however, Disha’s father Satish Salian approached the high court, claiming that his daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered. His lawyer, advocate Nilesh Ojha, argued that Disha’s death was the outcome of a “deep-rooted conspiracy involving powerful people” and that she was subjected to brutal sexual assault and murdered.

The CBI on September 11 recorded Salian’s statement to register its First Information Report (FIR), as the first step in its investigation. Salian’s lawyer, advocate Nilesh Ojha, claimed on the day, “The key points in the statement [of his client Salian] were that Disha Salian was gang-raped and then murdered, and there was a cover-up to hide the crimes, in which some then police officers were also involved,” Ojha had said, alleging that several high-profile individuals and a former policeman had played a role in the case.

The CBI’s Delhi unit on September 13 registered a case to probe the death based on the father’s statement, as per a Bombay High Court order of September 2. The FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to suspected offences including criminal conspiracy, gang rape, murder, causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to screen offenders, public servants disobeying directions of law with intent to save persons from punishment, and public servants framing an incorrect record with intent to save persons from punishment.