Truth Delayed

The Bombay High Court’s decision to hand the Disha Salian death case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is a welcome, though long overdue move.

For six years, the death of the 28-year-old celebrity manager has remained trapped between an official narrative and a cloud of unanswered questions. Salian fell from the 14th floor of a Mumbai building on June 8, 2020. Six days later, actor Sushant Singh Rajput, whom she had managed, was found dead. The coincidence has since fuelled enormous public speculation.

The disturbing question is why it took so long for the machinery of justice to seriously address the allegations made by Salian’s own father. Satish Salian has alleged that his daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered and has sought an FIR naming Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray and others. The Mumbai Police and state authorities had maintained that there was no foul play. When a bereaved parent continues to raise serious questions about the circumstances of a child’s death, the answer cannot simply be bureaucratic closure.

The High Court has now opened the case to an independent investigation. The CBI has been directed to register an FIR and investigate all aspects of the circumstances surrounding Salian’s death. The court has also made clear that nobody should be treated as an accused unless the investigation establishes a reasonable basis for doing so.

There should be no political protection racket in the name of preserving reputations.  If the allegations of murder and sexual assault are false, the investigation should establish that conclusively. If they are true, those responsible must face the law. And that includes the powerful and well-connected.

Too many cases where involving influence, political connections or proximity to power have created a justified suspicion that ordinary rules do not apply to extraordinary people. It is time that corrosive public perception changed.

The significance of the High Court’s order lies in restoring a credible search for answers – something that has not been in evidence in the last six years. When allegations of foul play are made by the family and an FIR is not registered, questions about the adequacy of the original investigation are inevitable. The court has now ensured that those questions are examined rather than allowed to gather dust.

The CBI must now go beyond the competing narratives that have surrounded the case since 2020. Its job is to establish, through evidence, what happened that night, whether the circumstances of Salian’s death were properly investigated in the first place, and whether there is any basis for the serious allegations made by her father.

After six years, the Salian family deserves more than competing versions of events. It deserves the truth. So does the public.