Satish Salian Serves Rs 500-Crore Defamation Notice at Matoshri Over Aaditya Remarks

Satish Salian, the father of celebrity manager Disha Salian, on Saturday delivered a Rs 500-crore defamation notice to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, arriving at the Thackeray family residence 'Matoshri' in Mumbai to serve the papers. A lawyer representing Thackeray accepted the notice, according to a party functionary.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Salian said the MLA had defamed him and confirmed that he had sent the legal notice to Thackeray.

The move follows a public statement by Aaditya Thackeray earlier this week in which he asserted that he had no link to the Disha Salian death case and had never met her. On Thursday, Uddhav Thackeray cautioned that he would pursue legal action if what he described as a campaign of character assassination against his family continued.

Senior Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut alleged that certain individuals were being deployed as "puppets" to sling mud at the Thackeray family, and claimed that Satish Salian was being controlled by others. Raut also said Salian had been satisfied six years ago that the death was an accident rather than a murder.

Raut directed his criticism at the family of BJP leader Narayan Rane, particularly his son and Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane, accusing them of dragging Aaditya Thackeray's name into the case.

Disha Salian, 28, who had briefly worked as a manager for actor Sushant Singh Rajput, died on June 8, 2020, after falling from the 12th floor of a residential building in Mumbai's Malad area. Rajput was found dead in his Bandra apartment a week later, on June 14, 2020, prompting speculation about a possible connection between the two deaths. The city police registered an accidental death report and later concluded, after an inquiry, that Disha had died by suicide.

The Central Bureau of Investigation recently registered an FIR in connection with her death after the Bombay High Court handed the case to the central agency, instructing that no one be named as an accused. On September 2, the High Court ordered the CBI probe while rebuking the Mumbai Police for not registering an FIR for six years, noting that its investigation raised more questions than it answered.