Rhea Chakraborty danced with jail inmates on last day, got them sweets from all her leftover money

Rhea Chakraborty spent close to a month in Byculla jail in a case relating to the death of her boyfriend, the late Sushant Singh Rajput. Activist Sudha Bharadwaj recalled meeting her in jail in 2020.

Sudha Bharadwaj, a human rights lawyer and trade unionist, spoke about Rhea Chakraborty in a new interview. She said that during her time in jail, she saw Rhea, and recalled how the actor had no airs about herself as she mingled with inmates and even performed for them on her last day in jail. Rhea, who was the girlfriend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput at the time of his death in 2020, had left Byculla jail after spending 28 days in judicial custody.

Rhea Chakraborty was in jail after the death of her boyfriend, actor Sushant Singh Rajput in 2020. (HT_PRINT)

Sudha, who was released from Mumbai’s Byculla jail in December last year after spending three years in prison, was arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. In a new interview, she said although Rhea had faced media trial and criticism on social media after the death of Sushant, she took it all sportingly, and was very friendly with inmates in Byculla jail during her time there. Rhea was in jail in connection with a drugs case related to Sushant's death, who was found dead in his Mumbai apartment in June, 2020.

“The Sushant Singh Rajput thing had been going on and on and on in the media, like 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.

Sudha continued to speak about Rhea, “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 for all the barracks she asked for sweets to be given, 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).”

Sudha further spoke about how Rhea had said that although everyone thinks people in jail are bad, and they are all criminals, she understood they were all undertrials, and it had not been proven that they were guilty. Sudha recalled Rhea saying she would take home all these memories of how the inmates were living in the jail.

Rhea was dating Sushant at the time he was found dead in his Mumbai apartment. Days after his death, Sushant's father KK Singh had filed an FIR accusing Rhea of abetment of suicide and money laundering. The case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation with the Enforcement Directorate and Narcotics Control Bureau investigating the accusations of money laundering and drugs, respectively. Rhea was released on bail in October 2020, after 28 days at the Byculla jail on drugs-related charges in the case.