Rhea Chakraborty spent nearly a month in Byculla jail after the death of her boyfriend, the late Sushant Singh Rajput. Recently, Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, a human rights lawyer and trade unionist talked about Rhea Chakraborty in the latest interview.
She said that during her time in jail, she saw the actress, and recalled Rhea was so guileless as she mingled with other convicts and even performed for them on her last day in jail. Rhea was the girlfriend of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput and after the actor’s mysterious death in 2020, she spent 28 days in judicial custody.
Sudha Bharadwaj was released from Mumbai’s Byculla jail in December last year after spending three years in prison. She was arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case.
In the latest interview, she revealed that Rhea had faced media trial and criticism on social media after the death of Sushant, but she took it all sportingly and was very friendly with everyone in Byculla jail during her tenure.
Rhea was in jail in connection with a drugs case related to Sushant’s death, who was found dead in his Mumbai apartment in June 2020.
Sudha revealed in her latest interview.
“The Sushant Singh Rajput thing had been going on and on and on in the media like it was crazy. At that time, we used to say that Rhea is being made a scapegoat. We were very unhappy with it. So, I was very glad that she was not brought into the main barrack; she was kept in the special cell. I think she was kept there so that she did not see the TV because people would keep that TV on. All the time hearing about your case would have been too upsetting for her,”
Sudha further said,
“I must say for somebody, who had been thrown into a situation like that… for her as a young person, she took it very sportingly. And she was so friendly with people. She was so friendly with the children. The first day (they met her), everybody was going ‘Rhea Kahan hai (where is Rhea)?’ You know, how people are. But she would never make a thing of it. And when she left, she had some money remaining in her account, so for all the barracks she asked for sweets to be given, and everybody came down to wish her goodbye. Then, everybody said, ‘Rhea, one dance, one dance’. And she actually obliged. So sweet. She danced with them (the inmates).”
Sudha also talked about how Rhea had said that even though everyone thinks people in jail are bad, and they are all criminals, she later understood they were all undertrials, and it had not been proven that they were guilty.
The activist also revealed that Rhea said she would take home all these memories of how people were living in the jail.
Rhea was in relationship Sushant at the time he was found dead in his Mumbai apartment.
A few days after his death, Sushant’s father KK Singh filed an FIR accusing Rhea of abetment of suicide and money laundering. The case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation with the Enforcement Directorate and Narcotics Control Bureau investigating the accusations of money laundering and drugs, respectively.
Later she was released on bail in October 2020, after spending 28 days at the Byculla jail on drug-related charges in the case.