The Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW) on Sunday directed the Mumbai police to take action against Union Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narayan Rane, his son MLA Nitesh Rane and BJP State president Chandrakant Patil for making defamatory statements which ‘tarnished’ the character of Disha Salian, said to be the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The MSCW has also directed the police to block social media accounts spreading false information concerning Ms. Salian’s death.
In a series of tweets, MSCW chairperson and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Rupali Chakankar said that Mr. Rane, in a recent press conference, had claimed without proof that the late Ms. Salian was “raped and murdered” despite her autopsy report claiming otherwise.
Ms. Chakankar accused Mr.Rane, his son Nitesh – the BJP legislator from Kankavli and Mr. Patil for maligning the character of the deceased by making these claims without any basis in fact at press conferences.
“Ms. Salian’s parents, Vasanti and Satish Salian, had lodged a complaint with the MSCW seeking removal of misleading and defamatory information about their daughter on social media. Even after her death, her character and reputation were tarnished while Ms. Salian and her family were slandered by Mr. Rane, his son and others who repeatedly made false statements that the investigation into Disha’s death was being carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), thereby casting doubt on the efficiency of the Mumbai Police’s investigative machinery,” she said.
She said that the Commission had directed the Mumbai’s Malwani police station to immediately file a criminal case against Mr. Rane, his son and Mr. Patil.
There were unconfirmed reports that the police had already filed an FIR in the case.
Recently, Mr. Rane had questioned the circumstances surrounding Ms. Salian’s death in June 2020 while hinting that a minister in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress had a hand in her death.
As per the Mumbai police, Ms. Salian had died after falling off of the 14th floor of a residential building in Mumbai’s Malad area. Six days later (on June 14, 2020) the 34-year-old Mr. Rajput was found hanging in his Bandra home.
Soon after Mr. Rane’s allegations, Maharashtra unit president Chandrakant Patil had promised that a ‘mega-expose’ on March 7 would resolve the ‘mystery’ surrounding Ms. Salian’s death even as Ms. Salian’s parents hit out at politicians trying to malign the deceased lady by questioning the circumstances surrounding her death.
Ms. Salian’s parents, in the presence of Mumbai Mayor and Shiv Sena leader Kishori Pednekar, had made an emotional public plea to be “left alone” while hitting out at politicians for exploiting their daughter’s death for political capital. They had further clarified that Disha was not Mr. Rajput’s manager, she had apparently met only once for some costume trials.
