After the CBI filed closure reports in the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case in Mumbai and Patna, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Shiv Sena (UBT) on Sunday pilloried the “blood-thirsty” television news channels for subjecting Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty to media-trial in the much-discussed suicide case, vilifying her and destroying her career and said that they would raise the issue in Parliament.
On a day Rhea’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde and brother Showik Chakraborty welcomed the CBI’s move to file closure reports in Mumbai and Patna courts saying “Satya Meva Jayate!” (Truth Alone Triumphs), TMC’s MP and deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose demanded a public apology from the television channels concerned for the vilification carried out against the actress, while Shiv Sena (UBT) MP and spokesperson (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the TV anchors should feel remorse for their wrong-doings.
Sagarika, who herself was a television anchor for many years, said that “witch-hunting TV anchors must be made accountable NOW”. She said she would raise the issue and root for “a UK-type ofcom like INDEPENDENT regulator for all TV channels”.
Taking to micro-blogging site, Sagarika wrote “Rhea Chakraborty @Tweet2Rhea is innocent. Nothing illustrates the total decay of India’s TV news channels more than the Rhea Chakraborty case. TV anchors who went on a witch hunt against Rhea must put in an open public apology”.
“All those who doubted the Mumbai Police investigation on SSR and welcomed the Bihar Police team to cater to a bloodthirsty media and then welcomed CBI, should feel some remorse. The CBI closure report took 5 years but surely exposed agenda bearers,” Priyanka wrote.
Interacting with this newspaper separately, Priyanka said that the television channels did great “injustice” to Rhea. “The media vilified her and destroyed her career to sub-serve their agenda increasing the TRPs. Now that she has been discharged in the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case, the television channels should express remorse for what they did to her. I intend to raise the issue and flag the most irresponsible conduct of the media in Rhea’s case”.
In a miscellaneous criminal application seeking closure of the case filed before the Bandra magistrate court, the CBI on Friday said that Sushant Singh Rajput’s death was “a simple case of suicide” and it absolved all named in two FIRs filed in the case, including actor Rhea Chakraborty, her parents, brother; and Rajput’s sister Priyanka and a doctor, named in a counter FIR filed by Rhea, concluding that there was no involvement of these persons in abetment of the suicide.
The CBI filed a similar closure report in a special court in Patna in connection with a case filed by Sushant’s father KK Singh against Rhea. Also stands annulled are another case filed by Rhea against Sushant’s sisters.
“The CBI has filed a closure report in connection with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput after almost four and a half years. We are grateful to the CBI for having thoroughly investigated every aspect of the case from all angles and closed the case. The amount of false narrative in social media and electronic media was totally uncalled for. Innocent people were hounded and paraded before the media and investigative authorities. I hope this does not repeat in any case,” Rhea’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde said.
“Rhea had to undergo untold miseries and was behind bars for 27 days for no fault of hers until Justice Sarang Kotwal of the Bombay High Court released her on bail. Today, I can share that I’m proud to have defended a Fauji family pro bono. This country is still very safe, and every citizen crying for justice has hope due to our vibrant judiciary. Satya Meva Jayate!” Maneshinde said.
In a related development, Rhea’s brother Showik Chakraborty shared his reaction on his Instagram stories by posting a video of himself walking along a mountain with Rhea, captioning it: “Satyamev Jayate (Truth alone triumphs)”. It may be recalled that both Rhea and Showik had been arrested in connection with the alleged drug case registered after Sushant’s death in 2020.
It may be recalled that Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging to a ceiling fan in his closed room of his duplex flat at Mont Blanc building at Bandra’s Carter Road in north-west Mumbai on June 14, 2020.
Having registered a case of Accidental Death Report (ADR) in connection with Sushant’s death, the Bandra police had collected all documents and pieces of evidence, including autopsy and forensic reports and recorded 56 statements as part of the investigations carried out by it under section 174 of CrPC. After substantial investigations, the Mumbai police had inferred Sushant’s death was a case of “suicide”.
In the third week of August 2020, the Supreme Court transferred the investigations in the case from the Mumbai police to the CBI. In crucial forensic report submitted to the CBI last week, the AIIMS -- which studied Sushant’s autopsy report, the injury pattern on Sushant’s body and correlated it with circumstantial evidence and also examined the preserved viscera - ruled out the possibility of a “murder” and said that it was a clear case of “suicide”.
The transfer of the Sushant Singh Rajput case from the Mumbai police to the CBI came in the midst of the media-trial brazenly conducted by the television channels which targeted the Mumbai police and the then Shiv Sena-led MVA government for the conclusion drawn by the Mumbai police was a clear-cut case of “suicide”.
While granting a conditional bail to Rhea - who was accused of abetting Sushant’s suicide - in the drug-related case, the Bombay High Court on October 20, 2020, Justice SV Kotwal noted: … I am satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the Applicant is not guilty of any offence punishable under Sections 19, 24 or 27A or any other offence involving commercial quantity”.
“There are no other criminal antecedents against her. She is not part of the chain of drug dealers. She has not forwarded the drugs allegedly procured by her to somebody else to earn monetary or other benefits. Since she has no criminal antecedents, there are reasonable grounds for believing that she is not likely to commit any offence while on bail,” Justice Kotwal had observed, while granting bail to Rhea.
Later in its ruling on a bunch of PILs filed in the Sushant Singh Rajput death-related cases, the Bombay High Court had on January 17, 2021 HC indirectly pulled up the media houses from holding “trials” and trying to influence the ongoing investigations.
Prefacing its directive to the media houses “not to step out of their boundaries too and thereby enter the grey area beyond the proverbial Lakshman Rekha”, a HC division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni had observed, “The measures we would thus propose to remedy the ills that have so long remained unchecked for the lack of strict enforcement of the regulatory control mechanism, in whatever manner it is available on paper, as well as lack of proper understanding of the law of contempt of court and the procedures governing the criminal justice system, are intended to safeguard the dignity of an individual and his liberty - the basic philosophy of our Constitution”.
“We would do so, conscious of our own limitations of not crossing the boundaries, while urging the media houses. not to step out of their boundaries too and thereby enter the grey area beyond the proverbial ‘Lakshman Rekha’,” the HC bench had noted.
