Rhea Chakraborty became the subject of a hate campaign because she was girlfriend of Sushant Singh Rajput, but the "Bengal tigress will fight back," her lawyer told NDTV today, hours after the 28-year-old got bail from the Bombay High Court.
"She will fight all those idiots. The shameless people who destroyed her image are lining up outside my office for my interview," Satish Manshinde said, referring to a section of media that has been under scrutiny for its no-holds-barred coverage of the actor's death and its aftermath.
Rhea Chakraborty walked out of Mumbai's Byculla jail today after remaining there for nearly a month. The Narcotics Control Bureau which arrested her on September 9 in course of its investigation into the drugs angle in the case, had accused her of being "an active member of a drug syndicate".
In the order granting bail, the High Court flatly contradicted the agency's claims, saying she was not a part of a chain of drug dealers.
Noting that the charges did not mention the involvement of drugs in commercial quantity, the court said spending money in procuring drugs for Sushant Singh Rajput "do not mean that she had financed illicit traffic."
"Simply providing money for a particular transaction or other transactions will not be financing of that activity," the court said.
"The judge found that the quantity (of drugs involved) was very less. It was not equivalent to the quantity that can be traded," Mr Manshinde said. "I am grateful to the high court that the judge went through the entire material given to him," he added.
Asked about the vilification of Rhea Chakraborty, Mr Manshinde said "corrupt journalists" were simply hunting for TRPs as no stories were coming during the coronavirus pandemic.
"The Bombay High Court is examining the role of media trial. He Supreme Court is also examining the role of the media trial in this case," he said. "One channel was discussing my fees and my cars and my office. I saw an attack on social media. How is my fee of any concern to them (news anchors)?" he added.
The twists and turns in the case started days after Sushant Rajput's death on June 14 as the social media exploded with allegations of nepotism and cliques in Bollywood which makes it hard for outsiders to find a foothold and grow.
As the Mumbai police, which said his death was suicide, focused on investigating the nepotism claims, Sushant Rajput's family accused Rhea Chakraborty of drugging him, exploiting him for money and having a role in his death.
Their claims only dragged the case into the political arena, it also opened the floodgates of allegations and jibes at Rhea Chakraborty.
"Sushant Rajput's family looks very vindictive as far as Rhea is concerned," Mr Manshinde said today.
Rhea Chakraborty, he added, was hounded "because she was the girlfriend of Sushant Singh Rajput, she was the live-in partner. She was almost like the housewife".
Currently, three Central agencies - the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and the Narcotics Control Bureau - are investigating various angles of the case.
