Human rights lawyer and trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj recently spoke about actress Rhea Chakraborty who was arrested in 2020 and spent 28 days in judicial custody in Byculla jail in Mumbai. Sudha, who was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, was released from prison after three years in December last year. She said that Rhea had no airs about her status, mingled with inmates and even performed for them before leaving the jail.
“The Sushant Singh Rajput thing had been going on and on and on in the media, 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 told Newslaundry in a new interview.
She added, “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 she asked for sweets to be given for all those in the barracks 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).”
Rhea Chakraborty was in a relationship with the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead at his Bandra apartment in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. Rhea was arrested on September 8 the same year by NCB after drugs-related charges were brought against her. She was granted bail in October after spending almost a month in Byculla jail.
