Aaditya Thackeray's 25-Page Reply To Disha Salian Father's Rs 500-Crore Defamation Notice

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday rejected a legal notice from Satish Salian, father of talent manager Disha Salian who died in 2020 after a fall from a residential building in Mumbai, in which Satish sought Rs 500 crore in damages for alleged defamation by his two posts on X. Aaditya Thackeray said he will not delete the posts, apologise, or pay any compensation as he was being connected to the case without any evidence anyway.

This came on a day that Satish Salian doubled down and said he would share "evidence" with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

'Let's Cut Through The Noise'

Thackeray, in a 25-page reply carrying 69 points, denied "every allegation, assertion, insinuation, interpretation, demand and claim" in the notice dated September 17. The notice alleged that the English and Marathi posts published from the @AUThackeray account on September 16 defamed Satish Salian.

Thackeray said he stands by the central line of his post: "Let's cut through the noise and talk facts, once again: I have never met or known Disha Salian."

"The posts do not name [Satish Salian]", said the reply, sent through his counsel Anshuman Sinha to Salian's lawyer Anushka Sonawane. It further said the notice failed to identify any such sentence, expression or imputation to Salian. It argued that the notice sought to build an impression by combining the posts with "the complaint, the writ proceedings, media reports and surrounding political events".

The reply repeated "never met or known Disha Salian" and cited another line, "Let the official re-investigation proceed."

It questioned Satish Salian's stances over time, and that his public statements immediately after his daughter's death and at later stages "appear materially inconsistent".

"My client will not engage in a personal exchange with a bereaved father or speculate about the reasons for the change in position," it further reads.

Disha Salian, 28, a former manager of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, died after falling from a building in Malad on June 8, 2020. The case was initially seen as an accidental death or suicide -- with no connection to Sushant Rajput's death by suicide a week later -- but recently a case of murder was registered by the CBI on court orders, on a petition by Satish Salian.

The FIR named Aaditya and his father Uddhav Thackeray, who was chief minister of Maharashtra at the time, as people who needed to be probed for their actions or dereliction in properly dealing with the case.

Thackeray has now cited a complaint Satish Salian made to the President of India on March 25, 2022, and an FIR of 2022, which Disha Salian's mother registered at Malvani police station, that spoke about Disha having been in depression "on account of certain financial losses".

On the recent proceedings in the Bombay High Court, which ordered registration of an FIR and a CBI investigation, Aaditya Thackeray's reply said there was "no adverse finding" against anyone and that "nobody shall be treated as an accused".

The reply rejected each of the notice's demands, which included removing both X posts, publishing an apology pinned for at least 90 days in English and Marathi, issuing correction requests to media outlets, and disclosing the social media account analytics and communications. It termed the Rs 500-crore demand "frivolous", "arbitrary", "speculative", and "intimidatory".

Pen drive to CBI

Meanwhile, Satish Salian's lawyer Nilesh Ojha issued a statement that a CBI officer from Delhi had reached the agency's Mumbai office where Salian would formally hand over a pen drive containing "evidence". Ojha said the material includes the video-recorded testimony of an eyewitness who claims to have seen Thackeray and others at the scene and alleges their involvement in the crime. The alleged contents have not been independently verified.

Ojha said Salian has sought immediate action, including arrest, against Thackeray, former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and other police officers and witnesses.