Thread by @MnshaP

I have been thoroughly intrigued by the online vilification of #RheaChakraborty — the memes, the posters, the #JusticeForSSR fan pages calling for her arrest. Who are these guys?

@NidhiSuresh_ speaks to 3 such men who are united in their hate for Rhea.
newslaundry.com/inside-the-onl…

Dheeraj hadn’t been a big fan of Rajput; what drew him was the fact that Rajput, like himself, was also from Bihar and managed to make it big in Bollywood.

He is one of the administrators of a Facebook group called “Justice for Sushant Singh Rajput”.

He's convinced that SSR was murdered and Rhea should be blamed: “Agar Salman [Khan] ki girlfriend ya wife aur Salman ke beech scene hua, toh kiska chalega? Salman ka hi chalega. Aur jabki yahan par Sushant aur Rhea ke sath jo scene hua, usme kiska chala tha? Rhea ka chala tha.”

Surjeet Singh Rathore came into the limelight when he appeared on Arnab Goswami’s primetime show: “I am a Rajput. I am a member of the Karni Sena. Sushant was also a Rajput, it’s my right to be involved."

In his post-Republic days, Rathore spends his time answering “calls from all across the country, mostly from my supporters and from TV channels”. He has a girlfriend but he quickly said, “Woh Rhea jaisi nahi hai.” She is not like Rhea.

Then there's Saahil Chaudhary who took to his YouTube channel on August 27, minutes after Rhea gave her first interview to Aaj Tak. Chaudhary folded his hands and addressed his two lakh followers: “Somebody please hammer Rajdeep Sardesai’s head.”

Chaudhary has never met SSR though he claimed so in his video. His frustrations at not being able to “make it big” in Bollywood were evident. “Out of lakhs of people, one got a chance and he became a star, but then you killed him?” he said. “What the fuck? You murdered him?”

Much of what these men have said, we've heard on news channels. And many conspiracy theories on social media from men like these, have made it to news.

So, who is the trigger: the public, or the news?

.@free_thinker says news has now entered the realm of gossip, which is rooted in “mudslinging and rumour-mongering”. “Gossip is addictive. I don’t know what to bust in this bizarre case..."

This pretty sums up my own frustration as a media watcher with this case.