The state political circles are abuzz with speculation that the Maharashtra government is likely to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the death of a celeb manager, Disha Salian, sparking worries in the Shiv Sena (UBT), here on Tuesday.

Among other things, the SIT is expected to probe the alleged involvement of Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aditya U.Thackeray into the ‘accidental death’ of Salian on June 8, 2020.

As per the probe so far, Salian was killed after falling from the 14th floor of a building in Malad — just a week before the Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging from his Bandra flat — which had sparked a huge political row.

Reacting to certain unconfirmed reports that the Mumbai Police are likely to announce its high-level SIT Tuesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) Deputy Leader and MLA Sachin Ahir said the party is ready to face any probe “provided it is done in a fair and transparent manner”.

His colleague Sunil Prabhu has slammed the SIT as a ‘political vendetta’ intended to hound the Opposition leaders by the government.

Ruling allies, Shiv Sena’s Minister Shambhuraj Desai and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Nitesh Rane have termed the Salian case as serious and said the guilty must be punished.

Nitesh Rane countered by asking why the former Maha Vikas Aghadi government kept silent for two-and-half years and failed to order an SIT probe the Salian case.

Other Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders like Sanjay Raut, Arvind Sawant, Anil Parab and Bhaskar Jadhav, have also attacked the state government for selectively targeting the Opposition and attempting to crush them, but said they would not succeed as the Mumbai Police had already probed the case in detail then.

(This article has been published via a syndicated feed)