Death of a star

I was in deep trauma after the news came in and wrote this which I strongly urge you to read. Often, I am compelled to write about events that are beyond the purview of my research in economic history but I am a whole person, not just someone doing this research. When something affects me, I talk about it, I grieve and I write. Writing is my way to sort out the conflicts in my head and to seek catharsis. If I don’t write about it, the grief and trauma will stay repressed and never find a release.

The piece I wrote was issue #4 of my newsletter EconHistorienne. I never wanted to write it but I couldn’t stop. Like today when India’s apex court rules in favour of a CBI inquiry into the death of the star that SSR was, I can’t help but lay out these points that are baffling me no end:

1. Legally, when police registers merely an accidental death report in a death case, it has limited investigation powers. Yet, Mumbai Police ill-treated a Bihar cop who landed in Mumbai to investigate after the registration of an FIR in Patna and forbid him from doing his job; challenged the Bihar Police’s jurisdiction in the case in Supreme Court (which is now dismissed by the SC), and did not register an FIR in the case even after sufficient grounds for it. It’s been two months since it stepped its foot on the case and has relentlessly kept at crushing it. Let this sink in. Let this also be your cue to knowing that something is terribly fishy about Mumbai Police’s behaviour.
2. Rhea Chakraborty filed a petition in the SC seeking the transfer of FIR filed against her Patna to Mumbai. She even did a U-turn on her stance on CBI investigation, first asking for it and later challenging it in the court. Now, the logical question here is: why is she bothered beyond the point that there should be fair investigation in the case? No one knows what her position in the case is except that she was SSR’s girlfriend (which she publicly stated only after his death), and as solicitor general Tushar Mehta rightly pointed out in the SC: “We do not know what is the role of Chakraborty in the case — witness, accused, complainant or nobody? Yet, she moves an application in the SC seeking transfer of the FIR to Mumbai. What is her interest in seeking transfer when she should be interested only in a fair probe, irrespective of the agency which investigates the case,” Mehta said. Whatever RC’s motives or compulsions are, there is definitely something to know more here too.

I won’t say much beyond this point, though a lot can be said. Today, I just have these two questions in my mind. I am not particularly on the moon after the SC order for CBI probe given that fairness of the investigation still can be a debatable issue. However, I am hoping there is some movement now on getting down to really knowing what really happened to SSR. Amen to that.