Tharoor Cleared of all Charges in Sunanda Pushkar Case: Will Media Trials Stop?

The positive verdict for Tharoor has also given a fresh thrust to the debate against media trials.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and his deceased wife, Sunanda Pushkar. Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo: PTI)

Seven and a half years after his wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room in the national capital, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was 'honourably discharged' from all charges, including abetment to suicide, by a Delhi court.

In his own words, the past few years was nothing short of torturous, where he "weathered unfounded accusations and media vilification".

"This brings a significant conclusion to the long nightmare, which had enveloped me after the tragic passing of my late wife Sunanda."

Shashi Tharoor

But what of the media trial against him?

The news of Sunanda Pushkar's death was covered extensively by the media in 2014. While initial reports deemed it to be a case of suicide, caught between a political tussle between the ruling Congress government and the Bharatiya Janata Party, especially in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the case took several sensational twists.

But more than it being investigative journalism, armed with conspiracy theories and conjectures, top news anchors like Arnab Goswami along with BJP MP Subramanian Swamy launched a vicious media trial against Tharoor.

News segments that dwelled on the death, analysing the timing of Pushkar's death, grabbed eyeballs, as Goswami's Republic TV insinuated that it was a murder case, although the charge sheet was based on abetment to suicide charges.

At one point, Republic TV also released a set of audio tapes alleging that Tharoor, along with his assistant Narayan, made deliberate attempts to stall Sunanda from talking to the media. Throughout the coverage, the channel alleged that Tharoor’s lies have been “caught”.

In this whole media trial, Republic TV journalists especially earned disrepute for heckling and hounding Tharoor with an onslaught of questions on Pushkar's death.

On one such occasion in 2017, a press briefing by the Congress MP outside his residence went awry after a reporter Aditya Raj Kaul who was then working with Republic TV continuously interrupted him with questions on Pushkar's death trying to evoke reactions.

This also led Tharoor to file a suit against Arnab Goswami and his channel, seeking compensation and damages for making allegedly defamatory remarks against him in their coverage of Pushkar’s death.

What perhaps added more fuel to the fire, is Subramanian Swamy's implications that the investigation was "botched up or was under the influence of anyone".

He had also filed a petition seeking a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) into Pushkar’s death.

The media trial reached such a fever-pitch that in 2020, the Delhi High Court had to ask Goswami to exercise restraint and 'bring down the rhetoric'.

During the hearing, coming down hard on Goswami, Justice Mukta Gupta had snapped, “Were you [Mr Goswami] at the spot? Are you an eye witness? You must respect the sanctity of an ongoing investigation."

Mr Swami too got a rap over his allegations by a bench of judges who famously said that his petition was "political interest litigation".

Netizens Demand Apology for Tharoor Over Media Trial

But as Tharoor got a clean chit finally on Wednesday, 18 August, many social media users also demanded an apology from the media for running a parallel investigation on the case and attempting to malign him.

Time for Action Against Repeat Offenders?

But the news channels and TV anchors who are in the pursuit of viewership and TRPs are repeat offenders when it comes to media trials.

And, the positive verdict for Tharoor has given a fresh thrust to the debate against such media trials that often result in mental harassment for those who have to go through it along with tainting their image even before anything is proven against them.

A case in point — the tragic death of Sushant Singh Rajput that most mainstream media channels covered for much of 2020.

In a prolonged and vicious media trial, Rhea Chakraborty, the late actor's girlfriend was declared a "gold-digger" and a "black magic practicing witch" among other things. Leaked chats were blown up on screen and read out by news anchors on Times Now and Republic TV.

Unfortunately, in the name of seeking justice for Sushant Singh Rajput, well-known actors like Kangana Ranaut also joined in the tirade against Rhea. Despite all the vilification, there is still not much evidence against Chakraborty of money laundering.

Likewise, the Aarushi Talwar murder case was almost morphed into a TV soap with the media delivering their verdict before anybody.

Several PILs were filed in the court in the wake of the SSR case against instances of media trial. In a judgment earlier this year, the Bombay High Court cautioned that instances of media trial can stand to impact the investigation.

The HC observed that reporting by news channels like Republic TV and Times Now on the case was “prima facie contemptuous”. Media trial also violates programme code under the Cable TV Network Regulation Act. However, it didn't take any action against the news anchors or the media houses.

“In the process, in an attempt to out-smart each other (for reasons which we need not discuss here), these two TV channels started a vicious campaign of masquerading as the crusaders of truth and justice and the saviours of the situation thereby exposing, what in their perception, Mumbai Police had suppressed, caring less for the rights of other stakeholders and throwing the commands of the Cr PC and all sense of propriety to the winds," the court said.

Yet, the harassment never stops.

While in 2020, former JNU student leader Umar Khalid alleged before a Delhi court that a “media trial” was impacting his right to a free and fair trial in a Delhi riots case, recently, Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty also made a plea saying, "We don't deserve a media trial," as her husband Raj Kundra is currently embroiled in an adult film case.

With media trials unabashedly derailing justice, is it time to take stern action?