Mumbai: Hero actor Sooraj Pancholi has announced a leave of absence from Instagram, after his name was linked to the deaths of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his one-time manager, Disha Salian.
Earlier, Sooraj and his family had denied any connection to the deaths and have also filed a police complaint in this regard. He has said that he never met Disha Salian.
On Saturday, he wrote on his Instagram stories, “See you Instagram! Hopefully will see you someday when the world is a better place. I need to breathe #Suffocated.” Sooraj has deleted all but one Instagram post, marking his 28th birthday in 2018.
Sooraj in an earlier interview had said that his mother was worried about him after the recent news reports came in. He said, “My mother thinks that I’m going to harm myself. And she has spoken to me a couple of times. Even after Sushant’s death, she spoke to me saying, ‘Sooraj, whatever it is, if there’s anything in your heart please come and talk to us. Don’t be quiet.’ I’m not a very talkative person when it comes to my problems. I don’t discuss with my family because I know they’re stressed because of me.”
On Friday, Sooraj’s father, Adiya Pancholi, also commented about the situation. In an interview to Aaj Tak he said, “One foolish guy posted and all this major media picked it up and made it into an issue. This is not fair. Everyone has to be responsible; we had to go through so much pain.” He added, “I am not on social media but they are trolling Sooraj that he is a ‘murderer’. This is the reason he had to turn his comments off. What is this?”
Sooraj and his mother, Zarina Wahab, have both dismissed reports that suggested he knew Disha Salian, or had thrown a party on the night before Sushant’s death. Several other Bollywood personalities have either deleted their social media accounts or have muted the comments on their posts as a major backlash ensued against ‘insiders’ after Sushant’s death.