Sushant Singh Rajput was schizophrenic as is nearly 10 per cent of Indian population which suffers from a range of mental illnesses from Obsessive disorder to Bipolarity. No shame in it, and in fact if anything his achievements while dealing with such severe mental illness are of the highest order.

The medicines that he was taking clearly indicate that he had been under treatment for long and there was only a marginal improvement in his condition. The names of medicines that have been published because one of the Doctors from RML –Dr Tarun Kumar—prescribed them on Messenger show that Sushant was likely to go into deep depression every now and then and the doctors suspected Bipolar syndrome.

My own assessment on having watched his videos and some of his programmes in which he is talking about star gazing etc is that his was a case of Schizophrenia. It appears he was given to hallucinations as is standard with Schizophrenia patients.

Those who have dealt with Schizophrenia in family or amongst friends know how damaging and confusing it can be. Untrained eyes can not detect it for years and by then it is too late.  Even if Rhea knew about his prescriptions and medicines and saw his unusual behaviour she could not have understood the depth to which it can sink. It’s almost impossible for normal human beings to understand how an affected mind works unless you have had prior exposure to such behaviour.

Dopamine is the crucial chemical composition in the brain which runs short and all medication is offered to fill the gap created by the shortage. The medicines that were administered to Sushant whose names are in public domain—Lonazep 5 mg and Daxid 50 mg  , Qutipin etc—are used in long term treatment of mental conditions ranging from depression to Schizophrenia. They have severe side effects and more importantly discontinuation of medication can lead to more complex problems including depressive feelings of suicide and entering a new life.

Schizophrenia mostly takes the form of auditory or visual hallucination and the patient lives in a cocoon of his own making. His interaction with the outside world including the people who he loves is superficial and holds little substance for him overall though he can be acutely conscious of their presence and love when in that zone. These zones are fleeting windows and as the disease worsens he becomes undesirable of company, fitful and secluded.

All this and more must have happened to Sushant. Then Covid intervened making things worse for him.

All this is not a defence of Rhea but think about a young girl in love. In an industry where drug use is common, where social climbing is virtually a sport and where girls like Kangana have had no compunction in breaking homes and hearts to achieve whatever they desired. Rhea was doing nothing unusual for a girl in those circumstances.

 Media and the Industry

The media of course guided by their choir conductor has gone into a hyper drive the likes of which have not been seen much but will be more common in future. A water mark has been set and it will be beaten time and again. Look at how various channels have literally pied pipered CBI, ED and NDPS into the case which started with charges of nepotism, then moved to stolen 17 crore, then Kangana jumped into it, then the scene moved to hounding all those close to Sushant and interviews with random cooks and neighbours all the while espousing own concocted conspiracy theories. It has now reached Kangana’s door and demolitions.  Mumbai police found nothing, CBI is still struggling but prima facie found nothing, ED couldn’t trace the PMLA charges because the money does not exist so finally the NCB was brought into slap drug trading charges which will also not stick. But the kettle has to be kept boiling.

The industry has reacted with caution. It went into a shell with charges of nepotism though Kangana took up that route first as she had several axes to grind. Those in the know from Mahesh Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan to Amir Khan have not spoken out. These fellows have great experience with schizophrenics but they chose to keep their own counsel. Twinkle Khanna of the new found brains also did not comment. In a way the industry except outcasts like Kangana, Payal and Rakhi have kept up their shrill trumpets to catch some attention and eye balls.

The first thing that should have come out was the statement of doctors on how they had been treating him for so many years. Instead of going in circles in their initial TV interviews Mahesh Bhatt and others should have stated plain and simple that Sushant was being treated and doctors should be questioned. That was not interesting enough as the doctors confirmed he was being treated. Bhatt, Bachchan and Amir Khan must have recognised SSR’s symptoms immediately having dealt with Parveen Babi and Faisal respectively.

 Sushant’s family

The family waited for nearly a month before filing a case in Patna. It is shameful, greedy and spiteful on their part. They have tried to cover their own shame in not being able to take care of their boy by taking it out on his girlfriend.

The 15 crore story was completely fabricated and those who floated it should be held responsible and tried. The story started with nepotism, changed track to 18 crore and Europe trip and finally ended with drugs. So it has everything from Sex, drugs, dhokha, paisa and voyeurism. And the sister Meetu will probably pay heavily in some way in the future as she threw aside her morals and got after Rhea while knowing full well that she had been prescribing medicines for her brother through her own doctors.

CBI

The SC handed the case to CBI on some technical ground but it has set a grave precedent. The technical ground was that Mumbai police had not registered a case under 302 but had been simply investigating it as suicide and under sections of the CrPC. Though a case can be handed over to CBI on the recommendation of a state govt, the SC should have gone into the technicality of  place of crime and investigation authority.

Mumbai Police

The Mumbai Police is/was being blamed on the ground that it was trying to shield Aditya Thakre. It may be so but subsequent events have proved that Sushant was suffering from a medical condition and for Aditya knowing him or having been with his manager Disha or her suicide and all that Sooraj Pancholi thing has no connection here.

What is surprising though is the Maharastra govt and Mumbai Police stand which appeared soft and defensive when the rumours about Aditya flew thick and fast. He perhaps went on the backfoot for reasons best known to him but if he had no relation with the suicide then he should have come out swinging.  The Mumbai Police’ stance in SC is inexplicable too, it should have simply agreed to hand over the case and all the diaries if they had nothing to hide. Police officers are known to put pressure and scare their political masters with made up stories of what can go wrong.  UddhavThakre should have simply directed the police to put all facts before him and then taken a quick decision. Remember what Pawar said: It’s a small matter. It should have been dealt that way but Uddhav got needlessly scared.

Kangna and the rest of the vultures

It is clear that they are working to a plan. At the height of Indo-China and Covid tensions, playing SSR day in day out can only be part of a plan. Kangana began with blaming everyone from Johar to Salman and of course brought in her pet hate Hrithik. Then she went on an overdrive against Rhea for some reason while shouting murder murder. 

Shiv sena delayed bringing out its heavy artillery against her—Raut and Rakhi Sawant etc. Normally it is quick to respond but for some reason Uddhav refused to move. When they did move bringing down her office and threatening her, the ends of the conspiracy opened up a little more. The courts came to her rescue as if on cue and she got an 11-guard Y plus security immediately. Why is she so important?  While there was no noise over dismantling of Shatrughan Sinha’s residence by Devendra Fadnavis govt because he opposed his masters it did not rile the media or the courts.

Bihar elections

It is clear now that Bihar elections is the major reason reason for Sushant becoming such a hot issue. Also specifically targeted at Thakur vote.  SSR unfortunately is not even the biggest star to come out of Bihar—there’s Shatru and Suman and a lot of Bhojpuri heroes who have a bigger following but his caste is correct. But big star or not he deserves our respect and a quiet respectful burial.

Another important reason is destabilising of the Mahaagadhi govt led by Uddhav. Kangana has found it pertinent to add the right catch phrases—Mini Pakistan, POK ho gaya hai Mumbai, Kashmiri Panditon ka dard and of course Ayodhya. For some reason Uddhav in power is actually weaker than Uddhav in Matoshree. This may be the first time anyone in Mumbai and specifically from the industry has referred to any Thakre as : Sun Le Uddhav, Tu bahut Udd reha hai, tera ghamand main chur karungi.”

 Rhea and family

Every woman including Sushant’s sisters should feel for Rhea. She is a young girl who fell in love with him—whether manipulative or not. Those who accuse her today have done much worse, especially Kangana.

She is too young to have recognised the symptoms of a deeper illness in him. She was having fun and was in love. May have been manipulative but there is no such cash pile which she or her brother were feasting upon. She can be accused of smoking joints with him but that the entire industry is doing with the exception of a few. She certainly did not want him to commit suicide. Neetu and SSR family disliked her for being aggressive and in control of SSR but not reason enough for them to accuse her of murdering him or egging him to suicide. Today her young life and whole family have been ruined and not because she fell in love with Sushant. Not even because he committed suicide. And not even because they shared joints but because Politics of the moment is against her. The great investigators and attorneys of offence from Arnab to Navika to Zee will all vanish in two weeks to some other smelly carcass or to do their master’s bidding leaving her broken to pick up pieces of her young life.