How a Bollywood star’s death case took a ‘misogynistic spiral’

How a Bollywood star’s death case took a ‘misogynistic spiral’

The death of Sushant Singh Rajput has transfixed India like no other news with media accused of vilifying the actor’s girlfriend.

Mumbai, India – Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead by apparent suicide at his Mumbai residence on June 14. What was a tragic end to a promising young star’s career has turned into a media frenzy centred on the 34-year-old actor’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty.

The case has since drawn in central investigation agencies as well as officers from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and has even become a political talking point for the upcoming elections in Bihar state – Rajput’s home state.

Chakraborty was arrested earlier this month, while prominent Bollywood personalities, including Deepika Padukone, have been questioned in an escalating drug investigation.

The police announced that Rajput’s was a case of accidental death and post-mortem and viscera reports accessed by the media ruled out foul play.

But Rajput’s family have accused Chakraborty, the actor’s live-in partner, of abetment to suicide, theft, cheating, conspiracy and wrongful confinement.

The Enforcement Directorate, examining money-laundering allegations against Chakraborty, has not found big transactions from the late actor’s account to the accused’s account. The Central Bureau of Investigation has not held a news briefing to reveal their findings.

But Chakraborty has found herself the subject of a vilification campaign by the media, including social media where “justice for Sushant” has trended multiple times in the past months, activists say.

Moral judgements

The actress and her brother remain in judicial custody under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, for allegedly procuring 59 grams of cannabis for Rajput. The NCB claims Chakraborty is part of a “drug syndicate”.

The investigation and unprecedented media coverage is a disquieting reminder of how women in Bollywood meet with harsher moral judgements than their male counterparts, lawyers and activists said.

Nandita Rao, Delhi High Court lawyer and activist, said that the charges against the actor are not commensurate with the evidence.

“Marijuana is a ‘conventional’ drug. The quantity is so small. To be a drug dealer, you have to procure commercial quantities and there has to be someone apart from your boyfriend that you have to sell it to,” Rao told Al Jazeera.

The NCB is now probing an alleged drug nexus in Bollywood and has summoned more female actors for questioning based on WhatsApp conversations that were also displayed on news channels, raising privacy concerns.

Al Jazeera tried to contact officials from the NCB but had received no response by the time of publication.

Rao said that the media trial appears politically orchestrated.

“It started out as an agenda against second- and third-generation Bollywood producers and actors. When Rajput died by suicide, the narrative was that he was pushed to do it by nepotism in the film industry,” she told Al Jazeera.

“[But later,] when the Bihar election took centre stage, the same people started shouting from the rooftops that he was ill-treated by his girlfriend and that she stole his money and abandoned him. Some even said that he did not have a mental illness and that she had drugged him.

“All factually incorrect allegations. Murder and abetment to suicide are contradictory allegations. Then, it took a misogynistic spiral,” Rao said.

Earlier this month, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) cultural cell unveiled posters with a photograph of Rajput with the message, “na bhule hai, na bhulne denge (we have neither forgotten, nor will we forget)”. Critics say the BJP has tried to squeeze political mileage out of Rajput’s death.