
An old tweet by Rhea Chakraborty is going viral following her arrest by NCB | Image credit: PTI
While the past few days have seen a new low for several media channels as well as the paparazzi, social media has not been far behind in adding fuel to what many are now referring to as the witch hunt of Rhea Chakraborty.
News18.com
Last Updated: September 9, 2020, 8:15 AM IST
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Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau on Tuesday under several sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
From three consecutive days, actress Rhea Chakraborty has been appearing before the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with the ongoing probe into a possible drugs connection in Sushant Singh Rajput's death. Chakraborty was arrested after three days of questioning. The arrest seemed to bring to fore the blatant sexism and misogyny of Indian men and women.
While the past few days have seen a new low for several media channels as well as the paparazzi, social media has not been far behind in adding fuel to what many are now referring to as the witch hunt of Chakraborty. Even as the media picked apart Chakraborty's personal life, her personal chats and her alleged drug habits in the name of seeking 'justice for Sushant', social media users on platforms like Twitter were busy doing the same.
After her arrest, trolls and so-called seekers of justice for Rajput found a tweet posted by Chakraborty as far back as 2009. The cryptic post read, "just stepped out of a weird scary engrossing story of an Indian girl...who served 4 n a half year jail sentence for narcotic trafficking".
The old, unconnected tweet invited a fresh lot of trolling of Chakraborty, who has already spent days surrounded by a media frenzy with so-called fans of SSR baying for her arrest at any count.
Responding to the tweet, many felt that it was clairvoyant. "I didn't know you were an astrologer Rhea," one Twitter user wrote. While another asked, "was the girl you?".
The tweet, which barely had a few hundred likes and even fewer shares initially, blew up following her arrest and is now being shared by thousands by way of a barb, not just to Chakraborty but all those who supported her.
Other actresses and celebrities such as Swara Bhasker, Shibani Dandekar and others who stood in support of Chakraborty were also tagged on the post and maligned.
While the incident reveals the crass, juvenile minds of a majority of adults, voting Indians, it also reveals a disturbing, vicious hatred for Chakraborty that has nothing to do with her drug use or her relationship with Rajput. It simply reeks of sexism.
All those sharing the tweet to jeer Chakraborty must know that drug trafficking and drug use are not the same things. And arrests don't make people guilty, court sentences do.