Media led Investigation and Trial by Media : a two faceted knife

In the Media led Investigations and subsequent Media Trials in the case of mysterious death of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, that have violated all boundaries of human decency and conduct on each side, a lot of banter has been exchanged on both sides and since I’ve been following each and every development of the case since the very beginning, including the conspiracy theories that are doing the rounds on social media, I have by now, articulated some of my own opinions on the manner of the investigation and the so-called media/social media trial. To anyone who cares to know, you can read along.

Something that destroyed all grounds of basic decency and ethics happened on the very first day itself, when the pictures of the dead body (real or morphed, as they are now being called) did the rounds on internet. The picture and the video, leaked probably by those present at the crime scene (maybe even sub-inspector level policemen; and I’m calling it a crime scene because even if it’s suicide, which isn’t yet confirmed, it still remains a crime in India, so) are still floating and it’s a shame that the world had to see a star fall like that, in that devastated form. The memory of his mortal remains couldn’t be preserved with dignity and what’s more heart-breaking is that people even shared the images on their Instagram stories. The image was reportedly sold by a newly created Instagram account and I cannot say if I have ever witnessed a more inhuman act on social media.

But then what Shekhar Suman rightly pointed out, it was these very images and illegal clippings that people from India and abroad had access to, on the basis of which, they could raise doubts and questions on the suicide theory. It is undeniable the fact that this case wasn’t given due respect in its inquest as an accidental death by the Mumbai Police, because let’s see: the post-mortem was done at night, the crime-scene was contaminated and there was a disturbingly quick conclusion to suicide: all this points to the unfortunate truth, or a useless attempt of cover-up. The greatest shade to this inquest was thrown when we got to know that the autopsy was delayed, the forensic examination was done in haste, the electronic devices weren’t examined by forensic experts and the time of death wasn’t mentioned in the post-mortem report.

However, I am no one to comment on the quality of investigation, but what I observed was that these inappropriate pictures became the reason why so many voices could gain factual ground or conviction at-least to voice the gut feeling that resonated with most of the people in India who are following this case, that it looks too sketchy to be a suicide. Perhaps it is, it isn’t. We are yet to find out, but the late relief that the investigation would go in the right direction and would be carried by capable agencies with honest intentions was something that led to the birth of multiple conspiracies and rumors.

Some probably were based on psychic readings and tarot card predictions, some based on allegations by yester-year vengeful celebrities who later apologised, others yet founded on heresay and what not. Speculations were the result of the discontent in people who couldn't accept the findings on its face values and weren't able to find a closure to this. Believe me or not, new conspiracy theories aren't gaining as much ground today after the family filed an FIR, after CBI's probe began. And that's because people speculate as a mechanism to deal with uncomfortable information and to accommodate what they already know to get to what they want to know.

This is as basic a human tendency, as could get. Flawed it is, in its design and probably harmful to those who have been wrongfully accused, but if the investigation will find the truth and punish the culprits, it will automatically acquit those who were so wrongfully accused. In this sense, the very people who speculated, their emotion and conviction brought about the social media uproar, amidst digital protests led by Ishakaran Singh Bhandari and the Media campaign led by Arnab Goswami, which as a collective was responsible for pressurizing authorities to take necessary steps.

The Supreme Court order which sanctioned CBI's probe clearly stated that it acted in interest of justice, where questions of jurisdiction were raised by law. One must pause to think that at times, justice and law might not be served in the same verdict. The technicalities of law lies with the authorities, but the sense of justice lies with the larger public.

Coming to media campaign, I’ve always found this glitch with Arnab’s style of journalism that he is biased, has opinions of his own and contrary to what a journalist’s duty is, he doesn’t let the two sides debate, rather drives and moderates the arguments so as to let the side that he supports win the case or in an objective viewer’s case, win his time. And you can blame him for that in every scenario including this, but what I will give him is that he stood up for Sushant.

Republic Network has covered this case with utmost sincerity, least sensationalized headlines, and on the basis of their ground work, maybe just to drive their own TRPs but tell me: if it is indeed what millions of people want to know, and are willing to watch, what wrong does it do?

Blatantly calling out names, politicizing this agenda by including Soniya-sena was an extreme even for my tastes, but I believe in the Media led Investigation (not media trial which is a different thing in my opinion) Republic has outdone itself and rightly so, because these investigations turn the narrative pushed by the Mumbai police, on its toes. Even if the truth remains on the unfortunate side, in this case which it is, is hard to tell; at-least we have the testimony of friends, family, and his staff or workers on record. They did this by protecting their identities unless they were comfortable and they reported it each day, they maintained the momentum in this case and exposed every layer of hypocrisy, conspiracy, doubt and conflict.

In that line of thought, I initially felt Kangana Ranaut’s blast on the second day of Sushant’s death was also a shallow tactic. She used this occasion to voice her own agony and speak for herself. But I am not quite in disbelief that this could have been one of the things that went against him in his career.

Yes, nepotism is everywhere. Yes, the audience makes or breaks the stars, but somewhere the narrow minded politics in Bollywood, with its shady history of destroying images, running blind items and brewing hypocrisy deserved its due share of scrutiny and exposure. Even if it was marginally something that affected him, and probably still affects others, it deserved to be brought out. Name calling and hitting below the belt doesn’t get you anywhere, but the torn speak the language called tattered and probably in her manner of speaking Kangana only had hostile, but noble intentions. Sure she diverted the attention from the investigation, but had the Mumbai Police taken on a keen interest of their own, they would have found more to this, than they initially did.

The same below the belt drive that few other Youtubers carried out, like Payal Rohatgi and Ajaz Khan will never be held to any dignity in long-run. I’m sure they must have had struggles of their own, but their hate content can only float on this momentum because it’s sustained by an honest drive in the public for justice, not because their hate content is good or likeable. In that aspect, slashing dislikes for Sadak 2 trailer was also an insensitive or insensible move. But tell me if there is a less hurtful way to drive the change within the film-making circuits to remove nepotism from their equations. No revolution or change has been brought by in history without unfortunate casualties. Sadak 2 trailer becoming the most disliked video is an unfortunate casualty. And so is Gunjan Saxena.

Now let’s address the charade of awareness that’s being spread about mental health citing the example of Sushant. If you’ve done that, I can excuse you as just an innocent civilian who believed what the national news channels and the Mumbai police said about the death of Sushant. I can believe that you were affected by this and hence decided to drop your two cents on depression and mental health taboo and its awareness, which is always a good case, but why does it only come up when something so extreme happens (this calls for another conversation, maybe sometime soon) but shouldn’t you have taken your words/tweets/posts down after the investigation took a counter-course. Celebrities are humans, humans can go wrong. It’s okay if you did that on 14th or 15th of June, but what’s stopping you from correcting that mistake now?

And ofcourse, if you’re speaking of mental health, how can you forget Barkha Dutt and her epic one sided, pre-recorded script narration from Susan Walker, who violated all terms and conditions of basic doctor-patient confidentiality privilege and exploited the death of Sushant as a reason to speak whatever she did of him. You might have done an honest counselling or diagnosis and you might be stating only the correct facts, but the truth is, that is exactly what you shouldn’t have done: violated the terms of your contract to speak ill of someone who is no more here to defend himself, and not just to the investigating authorities or the family members, but to the whole world. What were you thinking? We don’t blame you or your diagnosis (given if you even have a legal right to practice in India) if tomorrow the narrative is changed to him being in an induced state of hallucination or mental-illenss, due to administered drugs or unnecessary heavy prescription medicines but the act you did of disclosing these details, draws a question mark on your professionalism.

And it also questions the professionalism of the so called woke journalists who in the name of authenticity stooped so below as to generalize an entire state as “the cow-belt of India”. Didn’t you know how public of a relationship Sushant and Ankita shared and that his alleged girlfriends used to hang out with the family, and even now are very much in touch.

Transparency is the key in social media. If it gives others a platform to allege, it gives the alleged a platform to defend. So those who’ve come out now to maybe claim of his past relationships and trips are pointing fingers in directions whichever suits their purpose, or maybe not; maybe they’re just doing it because they believe it is the greater good. But that nowhere comes under the definition of media investigation or trial, because these to and fro blames/allegations/opinions/ events and their consequences, so far, have nothing to do with the actual charges being probed.

Now let’s come to two things that primarily brought me to writing this article:

Let’s start with the accused, who believes she is the victim here. I’m talking about the Social Media trial or the Media trial that has tarnished the image of Rhea Chakrborty, or the likes of Sooraj Pancholi. The witch-hunt as Ram Gopal Verma put it, is just people’s anger flowing in words on platforms where they’ve signed up to express and celebrities have signed up to be acknowledged.

Yes, it is wrong to bully someone, it is wrong to abuse, it is wrong to give rape threats, death threats to anyone; anyone doing that is definitely crossing a personal line of decency and violating laws of and beyond cyber-security; they must be punished if the victim chooses to report, as they should if they have nothing to hide and fear. If you’re spammed by such comments and messages, you have great tools at your disposal to limit the reach of audience to you. If you’re educated enough you’ll ensure that, if you’re smart enough, you’ll do that. If you’re bold enough, you’ll do that.

It’s a free country, in this Indian democracy with freedom of speech, we can voice our own opinions and we also run the risk of defamation charges being held up against us, but very much we can do that. Having said that, I would just like to remind that to cross the line is a personal choice but on all accounts, never stoop so below as to abuse, ridicule and bully. Even the memes and mean comments hurt, and god knows in how many other cases have these hate comments and messages destroyed the life of innocent souls. Hate is never the answer and that is why maybe even though I didn’t really like the trailer of Sadak 2, I didn’t press the dislike button. (In any usual circumstance, I don’t dislike the video for it not being good enough. I only dislike it if it’s in my opinion hurtful, mean, etc)In conclusion, because I totally agree to this, I would quote Sushant himself, on his opinion on social media trials.

It’s a weapon, it’s a knife. You can perform surgeries and operations with it; in the sense of putting pressures on agencies to take action if something wrong has happened but you can also use it to kill, which is what happened when false #metoo allegations were spread and he received so much hate, that his account was unverified for some-time. What a tragic irony.

Now let’s talk of the actual immorality that infuriated me.

Rhea’s WhatsApp chat history after cloning was a storehouse of sensational pieces of evidences that was leaked by central investigating agencies to media houses or their representatives and that is where I believe the ultimate line was crossed. This shows the hypocrisy of the system that they cannot reveal the details of their findings in a respected, restrained press conference but they will leak information for money or contract or who knows what.

The information in the alleged drug chats could have been brought in public domain without leaking conversations, without destroying the sanctity of investigations and without sensationalizing it any further. This didn’t help anyone, if it indeed exposed the victim prior to the trial in the court, it only ended up helping him/her by giving him/her opportunities to spew or drive the narrative.This is what Rhea did. She easily confided in Rajdeep Sardesai and spun the whole narcotic angle to Sushant’s blame which puts her misogyny on the first foot.

There is no denying that most television channels and print/social media are side-lining with the family of Sushant and are accusing Rhea, her family, his close associates in the last days, Sandeep Ssingh and the inner circles of Bollywood that have apparently always marginalized outsiders, indulged in drug consumption and promoted kin and family. This bias merits criticism if we are to objectively look at it. Rhea is indeed guilty unless proven innocent, otherwise. But that is the public sentiment. The public sentiment won’t put her behind the bars. The public sentiment won’t draw the verdict, it can only create pressure.

So, in legal terms the powers are reserved with the investigating agencies and the courts of law who are unbiased and as is evident, have treated the prime accused with utmost respect by the Mumbai police while escorting her to and fro everywhere. I wish they could extend the same courtesy to the prime witnesses of the state or had extended to the celebrated human whose life was told to them to be in danger.

To me, Rajdeep Sardesai’s interview seemed a genuine TRP move hidden behind the notion of bringing out the other side, which is fair. But his questions could have been more grilling; he seemed to be deliberately going easy on her because maybe, like Arnab, his personal biases kicked in. He didn’t believe that black magic merited a question or mention, anywhere. It might seem totally irrational and inconsequential to some, but to others it does matter. And this isn’t the court of law, this is a media trial and so, you could talk on lines of things that a part of population believes in. You couldn’t even grill her on the dates of the drug chat that belong to a time-when she wasn’t even dating Sushant or the most glaring details of financial inconsistencies that the ED probed and is still probing.

I was genuinely not offended by the interview, I was offended by her false claims, defaming allegations and hypocrisy but they were in their own ways, each doing their job, thinking about themselves and the whole world was probably, curious to know as to what the prime accused has to say and so by the same parameters that I judged Arab Goswami, I acquitted Aajtak and Rajdeep Sardesai of what was aired yesterday. However, what I witnessed today, totally totally shattered me.

This to me was like the lowest point that media investigation could ever touch, specially after the Press Council of India, today itself issued a notice advising restrained coverage to protect the identity of witnesses, to prevent tampering of evidence and to reduce undue pressure on authorities. What Aajtak and few other channels, probably ABP news did today absolutely shook my belief in the humanity of journalism and crime investigation.

The 36 min audio clip of Sushant, which I to my utmost regret, very eagerly sat down to listen was of January 2020 when Sushant was contemplating to renounce acting, Bollywood, his line of work and find a stable source of income from all of his earnings and investments till that point in time; his grief was surmounting to such an extent that he was willing to sell his dream car Maserati.

It broke my heart, even though I’ve only known him from this distance that at his lowest, to know that when he was discussing these plans with probably the people he confided in the most, in a state where he believed or was made to believe that, it is his worst because he is fighting his own mind; in that state, someone recorded him and after his death, this is the piece of recording that’s available to media.

Tell me something, as a human to another human. We all break down, we all shatter. We all have grave moments of weakness, and unanimously in those moments, we choose to be alone, don't we? We seek isolation. We seek confinement. The last thing we would think of is to have that moment play in front of billions on national television.

Glorious of men have darkest of days, and no amount of realism demands their darkest days to be brought to scrutiny and made a sensational material of debate, especially when the greatest stake-holder of the tragedy, the person himself isn’t here anymore to defend himself.

Tell me you reading, breathing person, would you ever contemplate having to defend yourself, were you to be put in this situation. Why it is that such information exists in public domain about someone who isn’t here anymore. One could even raise questions on the intentions of those who willed to record it in the first place. I’m sure there’s a decent chance it could well be good.

I’m also well aware that it might be a crucial piece of evidence in investigation and would help the parties draw some conclusions about him in that time. It’s evident in many of these chats that January was the time, he reached out to his family, gave an SOS call, felt his lowest.

But what bothers me is except the investigating authorities and probably the family members, no one should have been given the right to hear this. The man that is here no more was a great and noble soul and not many can even imagine to achieve and live a life the way he did, and I’m saying this because the way he dreamt, was so aspirational and then to see him actually have lived through, not one but hundreds of those is a testimony to how bright and magnificent of a human he was. And to bring out deliberately a piece of life at his probably the lowest phase, proves no point. It absolutely doesn’t.

His fans didn’t need to hear this, people following the case didn’t need to hear him say these things. His haters had no right to hear this. People using his case to spread awareness about mental health and depression, didn’t need to hear this. Who needed to hear this? No one. What purpose did it serve? Nothing.

We still don’t know if this wasn’t a hallucination induced from those un-needed drugs and medicines. That is the point in the primary FIR filed in this case. And even if all else fails, and this indeed is a proof that he was depressed and low, thinking of leaving Bollywood and moving onto something where his intellectual curiosity will drive him, this definitely didn’t need to come out in the public domain.

The fact that you couldn’t think this before playing the clip on national television makes me think, how insensitive are you, dear respected journalists? How low can you really stoop? How low?

I have no concluding thoughts today. I’m just hollowed by the lack of empathy and sensibility people exhibit, and not just random individuals, these are giant media conglomerates who have owned up-to the default responsibility of bringing correct information, diligent investigations and relevant opinions. Today I’m shook and ashamed of being their audience. I request you to not let curiosity get the better of you. Don't watch the videos on Aajtak or ABP news playing the clip and please voice your views against this sort of inhuman behavior to which some channels have stooped.