Rhea Chakraborty Arrest: Triumph or Trial for Mumbai Police?
Arrest of Rhea Chakraborty by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on September 8, 2020 bare opens once again the shady functioning of police and investigating agencies as was once witnessed in 2003 during the Telgi Stamp Paper Scam
Arrest of Rhea Chakraborty seems to have complicated the investigations of death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput more than it being a step towards some conclusion. Or we are wrong?
While attitude of Mumbai police in handling Rhea Chakraborty case was already under scanner, arrest of Rhea by the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) triggers fresh volley of doubts.
Mumbai Police have had a shoddy track record vis-à-vis functioning under political influence, with the arrest of Rhea, the NCB - a central government agency - too now can be viewed through the similar lens.
Dr Subramanian Swamy had only added spices into this curry when he said none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took keen interest that the drug-Bollywood and celebrity nexus in Mumbai must be probed into.
Possession of around 60 gram banned drug by Rhea as claimed by the agency may not be a big crime under the law, it is important to watch what are the other admissible and valid ground for the arrest of the actor by NCB.
A Mumbai court on Sept 11, 2020 rejected her bail plea. Narcotics Control Bureau, country's premier
anti-drugs agency, said the drugs financed by Rhea Chakraborty were not meant for personal consumption but for supplying to another person.
Therefore, the Section 27A of NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) should be applicable to her. "She cannot escape the clutches of law," it opined.
Rhea Chakraborty, 'girl friend' of Late Sushant Singh Rajput, was arrested over drugs charges linked to the case vis-a-vis mysterious death of the film star in June.
It is important to note that just a day before her arrest by NCB Rhea had filed an FIR in a Mumbai Police station against SSR’s sister alleging her for suggesting brother Sushant an unprescribed drug.
FIR with Mumbai police at the time when the case is being handled by the national investigating agencies like Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED)and NCB puts the intention of Mumbai police once again under scanner.
Is the Mumbai police trying to shield Rhea by giving her ‘VVIP’ treatment while national investigating agencies are under pressures from their own masters will be something to watch for in the future.
‘Rhea Chakraborty episode’ is not the first phase that marks the dawning of an alleged corrupt era in Mumbai police. The reason for such overgenerous observation is Mumbai police itself. There have been other VVIPs also.
Mumbai Police and its political masters
When he was asked by journos, “Did the Mumbai police not know about the drug menace angle”, Maharashtra Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh, preferred to keep silence with folded hands and moved ahead.
There is one thing common between Maharashtra of 2003 and 2020. Coincidentally on both the occasions, NCP has Home Department and both the Home Ministers – Chhagan Bhujbal and Anil Deshmukh – are Sharad Pawar acolytes.
Anil Deshmukh had tweeted sometime back to say – “I condemn the demand for the Sushant Singh Rajput case to be handed to the CBI. The case is now being politicised for political gains. Maharashtra Police is inquiring into the case professionally and are competent in digging out the truth, leaving no stone unturned”.
These are not to suggest that Mr Pawar has been singularly influencing Mumbai police with regard to their alleged mishandling of the mysterious death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Who Will Police the Police
Time and again, one has heard the whispering, “Who will police the police”. It is also true, the police always appear to be in an adversarial relationship with the common citizens and especially the media.
Both have thank-less nature of jobs and both need each other too. Any journalist who has covered a city like Mumbai, the communal mayhem or insurgency will back this statement.
The Mumbai police is in the news these days. Now that arrest process has begun in the much talked about Sushant Singh Rajput murder case involving drugs; the whispering about the efficacy and more importantly, the sincerity, of the ‘Scotland Yard of East’ has only gained momentum.
The sagging image of police is of course not confined to one state or region. Nor the credibility of Mumbai police has taken a hit for the first time.
Telgi Stamp Paper Scam: Dig in the reputation of Mumbai Police
The past is a mirror. Hence I go back to the 2003-04 days when the infamous Telgi stamp paper scam was being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by senior cop S.S Puri.
Yes, here I would recollect the ‘questionable role’ of inspector Dilip Kamath, who had gone to the length of serving tea and snacks to none other than the prime accused, Abdul Karim Telgi, in a Colaba apartment when the SIT team raided it.
The Karnataka police had already alerted about Telgi’s role and Anti-Corruption Bureau of Maharashtra was already on the job.
Though Kamat was acquitted in 2016, the alleged episode certainly could not find sympathizers for the Crime Branch of Mumbai police during the murky days of 2003-04.
Thus, the important take away is Rhea Chakraborty is not the first ‘prime suspect’ who got a VVIP treatment under the sun.
Shoddy Past of Mumbai Police
DCP Pradeep Sawant of Crime Branch too was arrested. It is, however, worth pointing out that Pradeep Sawant was suspended in 2004 for his alleged involvement in the stamp paper scam, but was reinstated in 2009 after he was found innocent. Sawant was later posted as DCP Anti-Terrorist Squad, Mumbai.
But the big embarrassment for the so called ‘national’ Scotland Yard was the arrest of a former Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shridhar Wagal. The day Wagal was held on the charge of connivance and taking bribes, he was Additional Director General of Police in the Maharashtra’s DGP’s office.
This journalist was in Mumbai those days discharging the role of a News Coordinator at the city’s well known newspaper ‘Free Press Journal’.
It goes without saying, the arrest of a bright academic career background IPS officer of 1976 batch, Wagal, who at times preferred keeping shirt buttons undone, had sent a shock wave among the men in Khaki.
Our news team was also as much surprised as the citizens of Mumbai or satellite towns Thane and Kalyan.
In fact, that was just the tip of the iceberg as regards the scam and taking the police morale at all time low ebb.
Worse in the history of Mumbai police commissionerate was to follow with the arrest of a former police commissioner Ranjit Singh Sharma on December 1, 2003. Look at the irony, the arrest of the police commissioner happened a day after his retirement.
But yet again, Wagal too was reinstated after the Supreme Court in 2007 said there was no case against him.
Wagal also had moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for his reinstatement in the Maharashtra police and in July 2010, the CAT directed his reinstatement.
Similarly, in Sharma’s case too, in a setback to the prosecution in the multi-crore fake stamp scam, the Special MCOCA Court in Pune had discharged him along with ex-DCP Pradeep Sawant and Inspector Vashisht Andhale for ‘lack of evidence’.
The high profile case relates to unearthing of ‘Telgi’s racket’ and seizure of fake stamp papers worth over Rs 3,068 crore.
Pune’s historic Yerwada jail was established during the colonial period in 1871. In 2004 and 2005; in the high-security precincts of the prison stayed notorious criminals like Abdul Karim Telgi and various gangsters barely a few metres away from the ‘arrested cops’.
As many as six Mumbai police personnel including two IPS officials were arrested in the case.
Are we asking for a moon?
There is definitely a nationwide clamour for reforms in police administration. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has spoken about certain limitations in today’s law. All these bring us back to the task emphasizing once again that the archaic Police Act of 1861, should be replaced at the earliest.
The Supreme Court in a landmark verdict in 2006 in Prakash Singh & Others and Union of India took serious note of the issue of police violence and impunity and directed the states to establish Police Complaint Authorities (PCA).
The judgment also made crucial points on the separation of law and order functions from the investigation functions for the police.
Police Reform: Some Recommendations
From several quarters, one key recommendation has been that the chief of state police force – the DGP should be selected from a panel of three senior IPS officers and the panel itself should be prepared by the Chairman of UPSC.
It has been also suggested time and again that the police chief (DGP) should have a fixed tenure. At present he or she is at the mercy of the Chief Minister and state Home Minister.
The faux pas in the existing system came to light in 2003 in Mumbai itself when over appointment of DGP in Maharashtra, both the then Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal resorted to verbal fracas before the media on camera.
In December 2003, Bhujbal also had to resign in the thick of the row over stamp paper scam. But for records, it was given out that he was bowing out of office owing moral responsibility for the attack on a TV channels office by NCP workers.
In 2020, days before the Supreme Court had given its nod for the CBI probe into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, NCP stalwart Sharad Pawar had said – “I have one hundred per cent trust in the Maharashtra and Mumbai Police”.
But to his embarrassment his grandnephew Parth Pawar had made a demand for the investigation by the premier investigating agency.
Parth had also written a letter to state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh demanding a CBI inquiry into the young actor’s death.
With new development happening each day in #ssrcase and varied political interest seemingly siding different sides it is something of the concerns how #justiceforsushant is delivered and delivered on time.
Media Credibility : A big let down in today's India
Ethics and media credibility are being intensely debated these days.
Of course, there are more reasons than one. But a great trigger to the entire noise and especially in the social media is 'India Today' decision to provide a platform to Rhea Chakraborty - a 'prime suspect' in the Sushant Singh Rajput mysterious death.
People cannot have access to independent and reliable information as long as the media remains 'polarised' in this manner.
"I didn’t know Sushant on a personal level nor do I know Rhea but what I know is, it only takes to be a human to understand how wrong it is to overtake judiciary to convict someone who isn’t proven guilty," came in one of those tweets from an unexpected quarter ?
Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu !
But let us come back to 'India Today'. As your's blogger comes from old school, the identification 'India Today' symbolises print medium when the magazine used to be one of the most trustworthy publications.
There are primarily two-three reasons for me becoming a journalist. One reason is my failure with flirtation with Science and of course another reason is intense reading of 'India Today' of 1980s and early 1990s. There was another reason, I had a wonderful Guru in All India Radio, Kohima - Mr Asheem Poddar - at present steering 'The Phoenix Post' show at Port Blair.
Perhaps many people of my generation would not have thought of journalism without that magazine being in the horizon. At least, this blogger is from that illustrious club. But change is an essence of life and electronic medium, the TRP games and social media battles have made the world altogether a different place.
Journalism is a powerful tool of 'indoctrination'. Stories/interviews must convince and can convince the target audience believe what you intent to say!
The 'India Today' TV interview with Rhea Chakraborty could be attributed to one these many factors. But it has certainly hit the credibility button. People could be wrong, but they are emotional and a large number of netizens were thus angry.
In circa 2000, for its special 25 Years publication, Aroon Purie in the edit had said - "...in the age of convergence, content is the king. So keep the faith....".
That faith was also hit. Purie had also written - "Sometimes success is born out of failure. 'India Today' was meant only for Indians living abroad when it started. The idea didn't work and only then were copies put out in the Indian market".
In 2020, ironically did the television channel err in agreeing for that interview? Now, whether Failure will be born out of TRP games and a game discovered post-2002 ?
In 2019, as a guest writer for Dimapur-based daily newspaper 'Nagaland Page', I wrote: "....... 'Jugadu’ journalism is the key stepping stone today – more so in large cities Delhi, Mumbai and various state capitals. In Lucknow and Chandigarh, journalists generally whisper how ‘people’ managed houses from the state governments. Journalists – thus - no longer talk about ‘stories’ or working in challenging situations as opportunities! They talk about junkets, getting into official patronage and in the long run even closer to the throne – where it suits".
So if television 'A' is going with Narendra Modi, the 'B' has to go against him. If 'A' has sided with Late Sushant and pilloried Rhea; channel 'B' has to provide platform to her. The 'prime suspect' - who is named as No. 1 in the FIR filed with Patna police, was even given an invitation to slander the deceased actor for allegedly abusing drugs. Forget ethics, the basic humane element required one should not talk like that for a dead person who cannot ever defend himself.
The big issue is not actor Sushant's surname, religion or his native state and more so because Bihar is going to the polls. The real factor was his age. The country lost a hard working talent at the age of 34 and a political class and Mumbai police easily called it a 'suicide' and let everyone 'suspected' go scot-free. One of his room mates - was even allowed to travel to Hyderabad and all sorts of argument was being made for not even filing the FIR.
Senior counsel Harish Salve has this to say: “We have made a complete mockery of criminal investigation system and we have only one agency to thanks for this, Mumbai Police". Stating that he had no idea why an FIR was not registered, Salve said it is very odd not to have the time of death in the medical report.
Now the issue of media trial. Here too, Salve says "thanks to media trial" that the case has been revisited.
But it true, the media stands 'polarised'. The same school of thought which said 'media trial' was unfair to Narendra Modi both for 2002 mayhem and Rafale row, now perhaps says - it is okay. Ironically, the otherside who thrived in the name of democratic rights to attack Modi today says media trial of Rhea Chakraborty is 'unfair'.
I have argued this earlier in previous blogs. A section of people have tried to give a spin that things deteriorated in the media under Narendra Modi. This may be a good Chicken and Egg story. More precise finding is that the ‘weakness’ in journalism cultivated for years has ultimately suited Mr Modi and his political machinations.
It will not be erroneous to suggest that it is the lack of professional journalism that has contributed in making a larger than life image of the 'brand Moditva'. He has rather exploited the weakness and the malady!
Thanks to television journalism and later backed by social media – the ‘screening process’ ended. Thus the Congress and its 'energetic leader' Rahul Gandhi's slogan ‘Chowkidar Chor hae’ was widely reported implying that country’s elected Prime Minister is a ‘thief’.
The hatred for Modi seemed to justify such a cheap campaign.
There was no fear of defamation and no ‘editing’ and screening. Ultimately, as BJP crossed the 300 mark in 2019 polls and the paragon of virtues Rahul Gandhi was reduced to around 50 MPs, it is certain today that the people of India did not approve of such negativism. Even prior to that, do not forget Rahul tendered apology in the Supreme Court on the issue of his campaign on Rafale.
The ‘Lobbying’ journalism in 2009 and around had given birth to the 'Nira Radia tape' episode where virtuous journalists were taking messages and meeting politicians trying to work which minister(s) should get which portfolio.
Notably, in 2008-09, the same 'big name' patrakar was alleged to have played certain games in 'Cash for Vote' scam. The result is L K Advani perhaps had to pay a prince. The Congress easily got five more years, from 2009 to 2014.
But ultimately, on boy; you have landed into the lap of Namo - the much disliked protagonist Narendra Modi!
Importantly, the Prime Minister is quite strong; so much so that despite economic and Covid crisis, he is rated as an outstanding and good Prime Minister by 78 percent of people surveyed.
On the other hand, some corrective measures have started in the Congress. Though belatedly, the media should not miss the big picture.
Importantly, those who hate 'Modi regime' should help Congress to put its house in order and also address the issues of 'appointed presidents' and 'elected presidents'.
Kapil Sibal is no RSS man from Nagpur. But he is right when he says - "We (Congress) need to be the lynchpin around which the wheel of the opposition revolves".
'Rediscovering the Congress' can bring about a good opposition and that's the big picture message in our country, 'India' today !
ends
Nice analysis and a recap of years goneby. I would suggest people to read it to have an account of politics affecting ‘things.’
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