Rhea Chakraborty was mobbed by media last month.
Highlights
- Mumbai Police warned the media against "chasing celebrities, others"
- Rhea Chakraborty is set to walk out of jail, nearly a month after arrest
- Last month, Rhea Chakraborty was mobbed by a horde of mediapersons
The Mumbai Police today warned the media against "chasing celebrities and others" and "endangering lives" minutes after actor Rhea Chakraborty was granted bail by the Bombay High Court. The 28-year-old actor is set to walk out of jail, nearly a month after she was arrested in a drugs case linked to the investigations into actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
"You cannot chase the vehicle of any celebrity, advocate or any person you wish to interview. You cannot endanger your life, the life of that person or normal people walking on the roads. It's an offence. We will take stern action, not only against the driver but against the person instigating, instructing the person to do such a chase," Sangram Singh Nishandar, Mumbai Police Deputy Commissioner, told reporters.
Last month, Rhea Chakraborty was mobbed by a horde of mediapersons in Mumbai before and after she was questioned for over six hours by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the drugs case, three days before she was jailed (on September 9).
Shocking visuals showed Ms Chakraborty, wearing a mask, struggling to make her way through the crowd to enter the investigating agency's office amid huge security. Many in the crowd were seen violating government-mandated social distancing norms, which are in place to check the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus even as Mumbai remains one of the worst-hit cities across the country amid the pandemic.
"Is there any work ethics for media?" National Commission of Women chief Rekha Sharma had tweeted at the time. Many Bollywood celebrities also responded to the visuals, calling it a "witch-hunt". "India... witness our lowest! Shameful witch hunt! Disgusting," tweeted Swara Bhasker.
Tapsee Pannu wrote on Twitter: "In the name of justice these people have lynched a human being off her right to live even before proven guilty. I sincerely pray karma finds the address of each and every human being part of this lowest low of mankind we are witness to."
Later, photos and videos showed actors Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan being chased as the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) widened its drugs probe and called them for questioning.
The senior Mumbai cop had warned the media at that time too. "We have observed a lot of media vehicles chasing people who were called for the inquiry. The vehicles will be seized because they are endangering their lives as well as lives of whoever was called and common people," Mr Nishandar told news agency ANI at the time.