Today on 23rd October 2023, the matter was mentioned before the Bench of Ld. Chief Justice Shri. Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya & Justice Shri Arif S. Doctor by Adv. Nilesh Ojha, Adv. Pooja Shah, Adv. Chaitanya Raote, Adv. Abhishek Mishra, Adv. Vikas Pawar, Adv. Snehal Surve, Adv. Hania Shaikh and others.
The court has directed the registry to list the matter on board of 6th December 2023.
Petitioner requested to all media to not to call it suicide in cases of murder when charges are still subjudice and under investigation.
Mumbai: – The hearing of the PIL related with Sushant Singh Rajput & Disha Salian’s murder case will be listed on the Hon’ble Chief Justice’s Board on 6th December 2023.
On that day, there will be hearing of four petitions.
(a) Main PIL seeking directions to Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) and police to arrest Aditya Thackeray, submit status report and expeditiously complete the investigation; [PIL (st) No. 17983 of 2023]
(b) Interim Application (st) No. 18784 of 2023 filed for;
(i ) Action against Rhea Chakraborty & Rajdeep Sardesai & Ors.
(ii) Live streaming of the hearing of the case;
(iii) Directions for providing protection to petitioner, witnesses and reporter who are exposing the accused.
(c) Intervention Application (st) No. 19336 of 2023 filed by accused Aditya Thackeray seeking permission to intervene;
(d) Perjury & contempt petition (I.A.) (st) No. 19612 of 2023 filed by the petitioner for taking Aditya Thackeray & his Advocate Rahul Arote in to custody and imposing a cost of Rs. 10 crores upon him for filing false affidavit before the High Court. Further action sought against Aditya Thackeray u/s 191 192, 193, 199, 200, 201, 209, 466, 471, 474, 120(B), 34 & 109 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Already a legal notice for defamation demanding a compensation of Rs. 19,750 crores is issued to Aditya Thackeray by the Petitioner Rashid Khan Pathan, through his Advocate Chaitanya Raote.
A public interest litigation has been filed in the Bombay High Court to direct the police to arrest Aditya Thackeray in the Disha Salian and Sushant Singh Rajput murder case. Petitioner states that despite strong evidence of involvement of Aditya Thackeray in the crime of gang rape and murder, he was not arrested.
The petition has been filed by the President of Supreme Court & High Court Litigants Association Shri Rashid Khan Pathan. [PIL (St.) No. 17983 of 2023]
In that petition, Aditya Thackeray has filed an intervention petition and demanded that he should also be heard and made a respondent. [I.A No 19336 of 2023].
In the affidavit filed in the High Court, Aditya Thackeray made defamatory allegations against the petitioner Rashid Khan Pathan that Rashid Khan Pathan has filed the petition for extorting money from him and to give benefit to the government. It was further alleged that Rashid Khan had misused his position in the organization while filing the petition. The matter mentioned in the petition is not of wider public interest and has nothing to do with the objectives of the Supreme Court & High Court Litigants Association. Accused further said that the matter was already investigated by CBI & Police and he (Aditya Thackeray) was exonerated after investigation in both the cases, but the petitioners are trying to achieve ulterior purposes by filing this petition. As the above allegations of Rashid Khan Pathan had filed a perjury and contempt petition against Aditya Thackeray in the High Court and demanded his arrest. [I.A. No.19612 of 2023]
With regard to the damages of defamation caused by false and baseless allegations made by Aditya Thackeray, the petitioner Rashid Khan Pathan, through his lawyer Adv. Chaitanya Raote sent a legal notice of Rs.19,750 crores to Aditya Thackeray, with conditions viz.
(i) Thackeray shall apologize and the same should be published on the front page in all leading newspapers within seven days.
(ii) A two-minute video of Aditya Thackeray tendering sincere apology to the petitioner shall be published on all leading TV channels in Marathi, Hindi & English.
(iii) to pay a compensation amount of Rs. 19,750 crores to be paid by way of Demand Draft (DD), within seven days.
Apart from this notice, a separate case under Sections 500 and 501 of the IPC will soon be filed in the Court of Uttar Pradesh and various other courts across the country, informed Rashid Khan Pathan’s lawyer, Adv. Nilesh Ojha.
Aditya Thackeray in his affidavit has also made false and defamatory allegations against Union Minister Narayan Rane, Nitesh Rane and Arnab Goswami of the Republic of India, and many witnesses, SSR fans, reporters etc. All of them can also initiate similar action at the court of jurisdiction of their residence.
Aditya Thackeray has refuted all the allegations made against him. He has asserted a defense that both cases, involving Disha Salian and Sushant Singh Rajput, have already been investigated by both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the local police, and he (Aditya) has been cleared of any wrongdoing. However, it’s worth noting that according to records from the CBI and the police, the investigations are still ongoing.
The petitioner Rashid Khan has filed an additional application requesting action against Aditya Thackeray for contempt and perjury. Rashid Khan seeks Aditya’s committal to jail custody on the grounds of submitting a false affidavit.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has explicitly stated that they are thoroughly investigating all aspects of the case and have not ruled out any possibilities, including the potential murder of Sushant Singh.
In the case of Disha Salian, a Special Investigation Team has already been established by the State Government to look into the matter.
These evidences had ex-facie proved the falsity of affidavit by Aditya Thackeray. Given that the affidavit filed by Aditya Thackeray has been proven to be false based on the available evidence and investigation documents, the petitioner has submitted an application under Section 340 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C) to initiate proceedings for the prosecution and punishment of Aditya Thackeray on charges of perjury and contempt.
Aditya Thackeray and his lawyer, Rahul Arote, are facing charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Sections 191, 192, 193, 199, 200, 201, 209, 466, 471, 474, 120 (B), 34, 109, etc. Each of these sections carries a maximum punishment of 7 years of imprisonment.
One of Aditya Thackeray’s defenses is that on June 8, 2020, the day when Disha Salian was murdered, he was in the hospital due to his grandfather, Sh. Patankar’s, alleged demise on that same day. However, this defense has been debunked, as it has been established that Aditya Thackeray’s grandfather was alive on June 8, 2020, and he actually passed away on June 14, 2020.
Additionally, the mobile tower location data available with the police indicates the presence of Aditya Thackeray, Suraj Pancholi, and Dino Morea at Disha’s apartment on June 8, 2020, when the murder occurred.
Furthermore, Aditya Thackeray and Rhea Chakraborty’s claim that they didn’t know each other has also been disproven through call details, which reveal approximately 44 calls exchanged between Rhea and Aditya during the investigation of the Sushant Singh murder case.
“Several pieces of evidence within the jurisdiction of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Mumbai zone, in Crime No. 15 of 2020, demonstrate that Rhea and Aditya had been engaged in discussions and transactions related to property matters long before the unfortunate demise of Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR).
Furthermore, co-accused Suraj Pancholi made a false statement in an interview by claiming that he did not know Disha Salian. It is well-established in the legal realm, as recognized by the Supreme Court and High Courts, that individuals taking false defenses can be subject to arrest and subsequent conviction and sentencing based on such falsehoods.
In the case of Disha Salian, there are concerns regarding the preservation of evidence, as the post-mortem examination was conducted three days after her demise, specifically on June 11, 2020. In contrast, the post-mortem examination of Sushant Singh Rajput took place on the very day of his passing, on June 14, 2020.
Additionally, the CCTV footage from June 8, 2020, in Disha’s residential complex appears to have been tampered with or destroyed. Furthermore, a police officer involved in the case fabricated a false narrative claiming that Disha’s case file was deleted from the computer. These actions were seemingly undertaken to prevent the transfer of the case file to the Bihar Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), possibly with the aim of protecting Aditya Thackeray and other co-accused individuals.
The accumulation of these pieces of evidence suggests that the then Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, may have misused his position to exert influence over the police force to shield his son, Aditya.
However, following a change in government, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed by the current administration. As a result, there is a strong possibility that those responsible for rape, murder, and complicit police officials will be brought to justice and potentially incarcerated in the near future.
REQUEST TO ALL MEDIA TO NOT TO CALL IT AS SUICIDE
Adv. Nilesh Ojha, Counsel for petitioner Rashid Khan Pathan had requested all media to not to mention the deaths as suicide as it is a case of murder and the matter is still subjudice. The CBI in their letter to Prime Minister & also Member of Rajyasabha Shri. Subramanian Swamy had clearly mentioned that in Sushant Singh Rajput’s case CBI had not accepted the theory of suicide and had not ruled out the possibility of murder.
In case of death of Disha Salian, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is investigating the charges of gang rape and murder and role of Aditya Thackeray and others in the said charges.
Both the matters are subjudice before Hon’ble Bombay High Court and therefore, calling it as suicide and publishing such news is an attempt of interference in the sub-judice matter and an attempt to prejudice the case and is an offence of contempt as has been ruled by Bombay High Court in the case of Nilesh Navalakha v. Union of India, 2021 SCC OnLine Bom 56.
