Mumbai: After failing to find a closure in his daughter Disha Salian’s unnatural death in 2020, Satish Salian approached the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe into her alleged gang rape and murder. However, justice still eludes him as his petitions await hearing. Satish Salian had filed a petition last year, seeking directions for FIR registration in connection with the death and a CBI probe.
Terming the death as a “premeditated act of violence”, he alleged there was a politically orchestrated cover-up to protect certain influential persons. Disha, celebrity manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, died on June 8, 2020, after falling off the 14th floor of a residential building in Malad. The city police had then registered an accidental death report (ADR). Last week Justice Sandesh Patil recused himself from hearing the petition since he had appeared for the CBI as a special public prosecutor before being elevated as a judge.
Before Justice Patil, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere had recused herself on grounds relating to judicial assignment. The assignment to hear criminal matters was another bench’s and was listed before the bench headed by Justice Dere. The petition was then listed for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Shree Chansrashekhar; he also recused from hearing the case on the administrative side. The petition then came before a bench headed by Justice Gadkari.
“As this was an administrative order (by CJ), no formal judicial order in that regard is available on record,” said Salian’s advocate Nilesh Ojha. During the hearing before Justice Gadkari on December 11, 2025, the court had remarked that it will have to look at all the necessary medical reports before passing any orders. The state had sought time, saying it was still waiting for the forensic report as it had sent the evidence for fresh evaluation. At the time, public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh had said that before deciding on FIR registration, the police must conclude whether it is warranted.
“We are waiting for the forensic report. For registering FIR, it has to come to the conclusion that it is required,” she had said. Ojha had argued that for registration of FIR, the post-mortem report was not essential. However, the bench insisted otherwise saying: “Someone has died; as a court, we want it. For considering your prayer (of registration of FIR), the post-mortem report is necessary.”
On February 4, Salian’s advocate, Vijay Kurle, mentioned the matter before a bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Sandesh Patil, when Justice Patil recused himself from hearing the case. “This matter was mentioned for circulation but since one of us, i.e. Shri Justice Sandesh D Patil was briefed about this matter by the Union of India therefore, this bench will not be able to take up this matter,” the bench noted in its order.
The petition will now be listed for hearing before another bench in due course of time. Justifying the delay in filing the petition, Salian said after his daughter’s death he was “overwhelmed with grief, was systematically misled and manipulated by key figures who orchestrated a false narrative to protect the accused”. “The Mumbai police hastily closed the death as a case of suicide or accidental death without taking into account forensic evidence, circumstantial proofs and eyewitness testimonies,” the plea added.
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