After spending nearly a month in jail, Rhea Chakraborty was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 7, Wednesday. She was arrested on September 8, 2020 in a drug abuse case linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case. Chakraborty is out on a bail of Rs 1 lakh. "Rhea should mark her presence for 10 days in the police station after release, deposit her passport, not travel abroad without court permission and inform the investigating officer if she has to leave Greater Mumbai,” the bench, led by Justice Sarang V Kotwal, said.
"She is not part of drug dealers. She has not forwarded the drugs allegedly procured by her to somebody else to earn monetary or other benefits", Bombay HC says in the order granting bail to #RheaChakraborthy in NDPS Case.#RheaChakraborty #SSRcase pic.twitter.com/uWgk5DOneo
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 7, 2020
As the news took over social media, her well-wishers hailed the court's decision. A report in Bollywood Hungama quoted a friend of the 28-year-old actress as saying, “Of course I am happy that she is out finally. The suffering that her parents have undergone, imagine both your children in jail, who will compensate the family for their damages?”
Reacting to the news, veteran actress Shabana Azmi was quoted by the portal as saying, “Finally! Now please leave her in peace.”
How Bollywood reacted
Taking to her Twitter account, Taapsee Pannu shared that she is worried about Chakraborty's time in jail and wrote: "Praying she doesn’t become bitter towards the life she has ahead of her." Here's her entire tweet:
Hope her time in jail has sufficed the egos of a lot of people out there who in the name of justice for Sushant fulfilled their personal/professional agendas.Praying she doesn’t become bitter towards the life she has ahead of her.
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) October 7, 2020
Life is Unfair but Atleast it’s not over as yet. https://t.co/TGnbRZSL83
Anubhav Singh wrote, “Finally!!! She gets bail. #RHEACHAKRABORTY.” Quoting his tweet filmmaker Hansal Mehta wrote, “Go get some rest girl.”
Finally!!! She gets bail. #RHEACHAKRABORTY
— Anubhav Sinha (@anubhavsinha) October 7, 2020
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Creative Editor Karanjeet Kaur stressed on "mental health" and wrote, "How to eviscerate a young life for the death of a partner rumoured to have mental health and substance abuse problems."
How to eviscerate a young life for the death of a partner rumoured to have mental health and substance abuse problems. https://t.co/mqtQxL3BpU
— Karanjeet Kaur (@Kaju_Katri) October 7, 2020
Journalist Marya Shakil stressed that Chakraborty was "pronounced guilty without trial." She tweeted:
#RheaChakraborthy gets bail
— Marya Shakil (@maryashakil) October 7, 2020
She was arrested without possession of drugs by NCB on 8th Sep
She was arrested as nothing was found by CBI&ED against her in SSR case
She was arrested as farcical campaign #justiceforSSR was getting TRPs & she was pronounced guilty without trial.
Award-winning Journalist Barkha Dutt was quick to point out the "misogynistic vilification" in the case and tweeted:
#RheaChakraborty finally gets bail after a month. She has been the subject of utmost misogynistic vilification, led by some of our major TV news channels ( some of whom tried and trying to change track midway).
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) October 7, 2020
Welcoming the decision, actor Farhan Akhtar called out the news channels that are vilifying Chakraborty. "Any shrill anchors apologising for the hell they put #RheaChakraborty and her family through? Didn’t think so. But watch them shift the goalpost now .. they’re notorious for that," he tweeted.
Any shrill anchors apologising for the hell they put #RheaChakraborty and her family through? Didn’t think so. But watch them shift the goalpost now .. they’re notorious for that. https://t.co/4VGkKNn1GR
— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) October 7, 2020
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta tweeted, "Now go fight elections on real issues, for the people and get elected by the people. Don't fight them at the altar of a girl's life, a family's peace and by exploiting tragedy. Serve the people. Not your vested interests".
Actress Dia Mirza said, "Rhea serving jail time and repeatedly being denied bail was disturbing given that peddlers of hard drugs with more than small quantity of the substance in their possession, have been released on bail within a fortnight but Rhea remained in jail since Sept 8th when no drugs were found on her. This must come as a relief to her family."
Meanwhile, Chakraborty’s advocate Satish Maneshinde said in a statement, “We are delighted by the order of the Bombay High Court granting bail to Rhea Chakraborty. Truth and justice have prevailed, and ultimately the submissions on facts and law have been accepted by Justice Sarang V Kotwal. The arrest and custody of Rhea was totally unwarranted and beyond the reach of law. The hounding and witch hunt by three central agencies, the CBI, ED and NCB, of Rhea should come to an end. We remain committed to truth. Satya Meva Jayate.”
On 6 October, a Mumbai court had extended the judicial custody of Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik till 20 October. He is still in judicial custody. The special court had also earlier rejected their bail pleas, following which they moved to the Bombay High Court.
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