Criminal Justice Addresses How Social Media Trolling Impacts Mental Health

The last episode of Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach released last Friday. The finale brought justice for the victim and her family and highlighted a severe issue in the present society - social media trolling. The series finale not only solved the Zara Ahuja murder mystery but also surfaced the urgency of dealing with brutal social media trolling that affects mental health in more ways than one.

The series stars Pankaj Tripathi, Shweta Basu Prasad, Purab Kohli, Swastika Mukherjee, Aditya Gupta, Deshna Dugad and Gaurav Gera, Kalyanee Mulay, Addinath Kothare, Khushboo Atreamong among others. The eight episodes also serve as a great example of how, in some cases, the Police can also carry preconceived notions when investigating a crime. How their hurriedness owing to media and public trials, can lead to the false implications of an innocent, something that happened in the murder case in the series.

Suggested reading: Criminal Justice 3 Review: Pankaj Tripathi Praised For This New Murder Mystery

Criminal Justice 3 Ep 8 Review

Episode 8 picks pace right from the start when Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi) summons the Awasthi couple to appear in court. We see how Mishra develops doubt over Mahendra Awasthi in the seventh episode after learning that his daughter died by suicide after brutal trolling for one of her social media posts. Tricking Awasthi’s wife into a revelation that discloses how Zara Ahuja (the murder victim) was one of the several kids who trolled her daughter, Mishra confirms his doubt that Mahendra Awasthi is the actual killer of Ahuja.

But the confirmation doesn’t end the episode as yet. In what can be seen as one of the season’s best episodes, Pankaj Tripathi plays Madhav Mishra differently this time; he is brutal in his narratives and makes sure no one gets by. The courtroom drama begins with opposition lawyer Lekha (Shweta Basu Prasad) calling an expert and asking him to validate whether or not the acid effect on lungs that Mahendra Awasthi carried were purely from the Nitric acid used for Zara Ahuja’s murder. When the expert states that it could have been any acid, Mishra plays on the front foot and raises a valid question in the courtroom, stating that if the acid does lead to lung infection, why did Mukul - accused in Zara’s murder - not develop one?

Mishra doesn't waste time and touches upon social media trolling and its effect on mental health, especially among kids. Citing the example of Awasthi's daughter who had a severe impact on her mental health after being brutally trolled on social media, Mishra describes to the court how people these days indulge in bringing others down without a drop of guilt, and that is something collectively wrong with our society as a whole. During the episode, Mishra discusses social media trolls with his assistant and brother-in-law, as the latter informs him how nameless, faceless people on social media with several fake accounts do nothing but troll the public at large, including celebrities, people they know, and even strangers. Mishra pointed out how the Awasthis lost their daughter to suicide because trolls primarily impacted her and it led her to end her life because she was mentally disturbed to an unimaginable extent. Mahendra Awasthi confesses his crime soon after and details the account of the night he killed Zara Ahuja to avenge his daughter's death.

Social media trolling has long been in the picture with almost everyone having an access to the internet today. Trolls aren't a different set of public, trolls are often people among us, around us, people who hold entitlement over passing negative judgements on people's looks, work, and any behaviour they can't digest. Social media trolling causes major negative effects on people because their psychological and physical health both suffer from the aftermath effect they face. Anxiety issues, low self-esteem, self-harm, disturbance and, ultimately, depression are the many effects that people go through. In many cases, it leads to suicide, something which happened in Criminal Justice. Towards the end, we see the court sentence Mahendra Awasthi to prison, leading to the fair release of Mukul Ahuja. With the Ahuja family uniting and Madhav Mishra finally receiving his fee cheque after a long wait, the series ends, enabling us to think hard about the issues that the world is facing in the real world.

Alarmingly, social media trolling is a dominant issue and even denser than we can fathom. It's time we address this as an urgency because it is affecting people largely, and the effects are irreparable in some cases.

The views expressed are the author's own.