If you’ve logged onto X this morning, you’d be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu.

Timelines are awash with old photos of Rhea Chakraborty – weeping, mobbed by shouting cameramen, with her late boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput. But this time, it isn’t the horrifying media trial that played out after Rajput’s suicide in 2020 – it’s details from the CBI report that gave Rhea a clean chit in his death. 

Hindustan Times ‘exclusively’ accessed the contents of one of the CBI’s closure reports, filed in March this year. It said there was no evidence that Rajput was “illegally confined, threatened or provocated/abetted to commit suicide” by Rhea. 

Instead, the report categorically concluded that Rajput “had committed suicide”, that he hadn’t spoken to Rhea in the days leading up to his death, and that there was “no evidence” on record “suggesting that Sushant was illegally confined or restrained in any manner by any of the accused or any other persons”. 

On X, there were a number of scathing tweets on the role of the media.

Excellent, you might think. Well done. But why does this really matter?

Because the media often messes up in India. But even by those low standards, we hit new depths after Rajput’s death – this aside from the vicious trolling, death threats and abuse she got online. For the media, she was Enemy #1 – from claims that she practised black magic, to the now storied ‘imma bounce’ moment, to Arnab begging for drugs on live television. An analysis of TV news debates revealed that Arnab Goswami and Navika Kumar spent over 65 percent of their debates on Rajput’s suicide.

Read this piece in Newslaundry analysing how something is rotten in the state of TV news. This one on appalling scenes witnessed outside Rhea’s home in Mumbai with reporters literally giving chase. This one on the conspiracy theories surrounding Rajput’s death. This long piece on the online cult of #JusticeForSSR. And this story on the media trial endured by the family of Disha Salian, who worked with Rajput and died, her life and death made part of a determined disinformation campaign.

As the years go by, Rhea is likely to periodically return to public interest. But the news cycle will move on from all the insanity that went down in the middle of the pandemic, manufactured entirely by the media. 

But we shouldn’t forget. It’s important to document for posterity, and that’s what we’ve been doing from the start. If you want to support us in calling out the highs and lows of Indian media, click here to subscribe.