The Mumbai Police on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that there was no foul play in the death of Disha Salian, the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, The Indian Express reported.

Disha Salian had allegedly died by suicide on June 8, 2020, after jumping from the 14th floor of a building in Mumbai’s Malad area. Six days later, Rajput was found dead at his residence. The police had closed the case in 2021 and said that no evidence of foul play had been found in her death.

However, the celebrity manager’s father, Satish Salian, moved the Bombay High Court in March seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into her death and the filing of a first information report against Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray, PTI reported.

Claiming that his daughter had died under suspicious circumstances, Satish Salian in his petition alleged that she was gangraped and murdered. He claimed that there had also been a politically-driven cover-up to shield “influential persons”.

Satish Salian said that he initially believed that the investigation was “genuine, but later found it to be a cover-up”, The Indian Express reported.

His petition came up for hearing on Wednesday before a bench headed by Justice AS Gadkari, PTI reported.

In an affidavit seeking the dismissal of the petition, an officer from the Malvani police station told the court that a closure report had already been filed in the case. The Malvani Police had investigated the case first.

The affidavit added that the conclusions of the Special Investigation Team, set up by the Maharashtra government in 2023 to look into the matter, were consistent with the original investigation into Disha Salian’s death, The Indian Express reported.

“I say that in the light of the circumstances and witness statements, the deceased Disha Salian out of her own volition jumped off the window of the flat and died by suicide,” PTI quoted the officer as saying in the affidavit.

The officer also highlighted that the SIT’s inquiry is ongoing, The Indian Express reported.

Satish Salian on Wednesday submitted a rejoinder to the police affidavit, PTI reported. He claimed that the court had directed the state government to file a reply to his petition by April 30 through its chief secretary.

However, an “unauthorised and biased” affidavit was instead submitted by a “conflicted officer” from the Malvani Police, The Indian Express quoted him as having claimed.

Satish Salian also said that the SIT was investigating allegations of gangrape and murder without first registering an FIR, which was grossly illegal.

The court will hear the matter next on July 16.

Meanwhile, Aaditya Thackeray also filed an intervention application seeking to be heard in the matter, claiming that the petitioner had “relied upon false, baseless and hearsay allegations”, The Indian Express reported.

On Thursday, the Uddhav Sena leader refused to comment on the police affidavit that refuted any foul play, saying that he had chosen silence despite attempts to defame him, PTI reported.

In December 2022, Disha Salian’s death was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly by Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs and the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde, who was the chief minister at the time.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was the deputy chief minister at the time, had told the Assembly that the SIT would be formed to investigate the case.

However, Thackeray alleged that the government was raising the issue to divert attention from the Nagpur Improvement Trust row.

The Opposition had alleged that in April 2021, Shinde, who was the urban development minister at the time, allotted more than 4.5 acres reserved for slum dwellers at a cheap price to 16 private individuals despite the matter being sub-judice.

At the time, Disha Salian’s parents had opposed the setting up of the SIT.

“Will the SIT bring back our daughter?” her parents had asked. “Why is all this being done? The case is already closed by Mumbai Police. A lot of investigations have already been done, then why again?”