New Delhi: The Hathras case dominated prime time debates Thursday, with India TV claiming that Rs 100 crore was sourced from abroad, at least half of it from Mauritius, to instigate riots in Hathras. NewsX, too, discussed the Mauritius angle. A few channels also discussed actor Rhea Chakraborty’s bail that came just about a month after her arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau.
CNN-News18 scrutinised the “findings” of its own undercover investigation, “Operation Hathras”. A reporter from the channel secretly recorded a conversation with Dinesh Verma, a first responder from the Uttar Pradesh Police, who said the incident only involved murder and the charges of gang-rape were added later as the “family was misled by the lure of Rs 25-30 lakh compensation”.
Vikram Singh, former Director General of Police in Uttar Pradesh, rubbished the claims. “With my experience, I can say that Dinesh Verma is an interested party and whatever he has said, he has supported the action that he has taken and this is the standard operating procedure of some unscrupulous elements in the police department to minimise and dilute the charges.”
Despite the disclaimer that the incident itself was condemnable, BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said, “…circumstances are brewing beyond doubt that this situation has been manipulated.”
In the same vein, Zee News claimed to have the “biggest testimonies” in Hathras case and asked who is the “scriptwriter” of the “farzi” (false) gang-rape case.
The channel also aired a sting operation, claiming that it would change the direction of the case, and that it had to do this sting operation in “national interest”. The reporter interviewed the accused’s father, the Hathras hospital’s doctor who treated the girl for the first time and a home guard personnel. While the doctor claimed that the victim’s tongue was not cut, the home guard personnel said that this could be a matter of personal animosity. The accused parents, however, said that the victim’s mother continued working in the field despite her daughter lying injured beside her.
NDTV 24×7‘s Sanket Upadhyay chose to focus on Rhea Chakraborty’s bail and turned it into an excuse to attack other news channels. He thundered, “Now that she is out on bail, now that a forensics expert team has concluded that Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide and not by murder, why not call out these fake news TV channels, these shoot-and-scoot agencies.”
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner wondered who would lodge the case against the TV channels. “The affected party in this case, Rhea, her brother and some other person, could’ve gone to the court, they could’ve obtained a restraining order. The second option was to file a case of defamation against them, which are again very long-drawn processes. But some of these processes are time-tested and effective.”
Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said, “It is high time that we must have such legislation through which we should control such… propaganda that is baseless so that a respectable person can maintain their status.”
India Today‘s Rajdeep Sardesai asked if bail was the first step to justice for Rhea and a blow to the NCB and if she would continue to face the charge of abetment to suicide in the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Rhea Chakraborty’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, pointed out, “After 14 June 2020, Rhea was investigated by the Mumbai Police, they didn’t find anything against her. The Patna Police tried to get into the picture, they could not. Thereafter, the ED came into the picture, CBI has investigated her and then NCB. So she has been hounded almost by five agencies.”
Former NCB chief BV Kumar lauded the Bombay High Court for granting her bail and said, “it wasn’t correct (the NCB slapping a drug financing case on Rhea Chakraborty). The Honorable High Court also said that she had not procured the drugs for any monetary consideration or benefit… I think they (the NCB) was under influence and pressure but what they did was farfetched.”