Sushant Singh Rajput case TV coverage has turned into a media circus

The breathless media coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case continues non-stop without pause or mute and journalists-turned-shamus TV news reporters cannot seem to get enough of SSR’s ‘girlfriend’ Rhea Chakraborty’s elbow. Some of the marauding hacks have even christened her ‘Vishkanya,’ which has something to do with snake and poison. Venomous!

Rhea, accused of murder and vilification of Sushant Singh Rajput’s fair inquisitive name, allegedly robbed his millions by swiping his credit and debit cards after drugging the PIN numbers out of him in numerical succession.

The Rhea-SSR love story is not like Laila & Majnu’s nor does it mimic Romeo & Juliet. This is a tragedy of a different kind and even Shakespeare for all his literary genius, and play-acting inventiveness, couldn’t have come up with a plot this thick a soup that you could float a ship on it, an aircraft carrier!

But that’s not the story. The mysterious death of Sushant Singh Rajput, dismissed by the Mumbai Police as a ‘suicide’ and refuted by all and sundry who claim they can sniff murder out of any mix, has been overtaken by ‘Rhea Ki Aapbeethi.’

The story now is about Rhea tormented, of Rhea subjected to media trial and of Rhea accused of murder most foul. So much so, Rhea cannot step out of home without some faceless loudmouth TV reporter ambushing her from behind a column cast in dark shadow.

But even in the inky dark, her fetching profile is one to launch a 100 chasing cars. There’s no empathy in the vermin, the pests, who trail her car through the crowded roads of Mumbai, like dogs in heat. A couple in the Republic even followed Rhea into a police station the other evening and khaki-clad angels had to chase them clean out of the cop compound.

By the way, there are two sets of the media giving Rhea chase. Media which are sympathetic to Rhea. And media which are hostile. Not most amazingly one is fed by forces drawing strength from within Maharashtra. The other get succour from the Centre and central agencies – CBI, NCB, ED… Tormented and targeted, Rhea is caught in the middle. Defenseless.

The anti-Rhea media assault Rhea’s eardrums and elbows. The reporters of these media behave like lower-crass (not class) molesters.

They lie in wait overnight outside the gates of her apartment complex to be first to sniff at her heels the next morning. It’s anybody’s guess whether they find time to brush teeth and gargle throat. They leave behind a foul smell.

The Mumbai Police have to bear the brunt of the 'smell' of the ‘media trial’. Two obnoxious English language television news channels and at least two to three Hindi TV news channels are at the vanguard. They have made it their mission to target Rhea Chakraborty and her family from morning to night.

The result is that today Rhea’s brother Showik Chakraborty is in the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau on charges of alleged drug peddling and drug-use. Also, Rhea’s seemingly respectable father, is being "grilled" following unverified revelations that he solicited a ‘boom’, Bollywood slang for a narcotic shot, claim the anti-Rhea media.

It appears like there’s a concerted and targeted campaign to use the SSR death to put curbs on Bollywood’s taste for recreational drugs. Now, pray tell, which group of creative people don’t need a diversion to focus? You cannot get a Bollywood blockbuster out of mediocre pedestrian minds never on a high, can you?

Worst of all, there’s no proof, credible evidence, to link Rhea with Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. He was found hanging to the ceiling fan

in his room and Rhea, who wasn’t anywhere near SSR hanging from the ceiling fan, was placed unerringly as murderer-in-chief.

Now, the shouting accusing media, chasing Rhea Chakraborty from DRDO Guesthouse to Santacruz Police Station, names Rhea as “Accused No.1” on a minute by minute basis in all stories telecast and helpless Rhea cannot do anything about it. The one stalwart anchor who came to the rescue of the damsel in distress couldn’t make a good job of it because he himself was pushed into the dock for being “self-serving.’ What a joke this sham of a shamus probe!