Scoop follows the story of Jagruti Pathak, an ambitious journalist, whose life turns upside down after she is accused of being involved in the murder of another top journalist, Jaideb Sen.
Based on the memoir Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison by Jigna Vora, Scoop on Netflix features Karishma Tanna in the role of a prominent journalist who becomes the prime suspect in the brutal murder of fellow journalist Jaiden Sen, played by Prasenjit Chatterjee. The cast also includes Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Harman Baweja, and Inayat Sood. The series is created and directed by Indian director Hansal Mehta.
Scoop Recap and Story Summary
Jagruti Pathak (Karishma Tanna) receives a call about an attack on D-company. She rushes to the crime scene, expecting an exclusive scoop that could be breaking news. However, her hopes are shattered when she gets to know that it was Hussain, the driver of Dawood’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar, who had been shot dead. The police believe that the murder was planned by Chhota Rajan. However, Jaideb Sen (Prasenjit Chatterjee), an experienced senior journalist, refuses to believe it to be the case. It does not make sense to him for Rajan to murder Hussain near Kaskar’s residence when he could do the same with extreme ease at Hussain’s Byculla residence.
Jagruti, who is also present at the scene, agrees and concludes that Kaskar must have been the actual target. However, the police refuse to deviate from their original stance. Jaideb mentions that Chhota Rajan just seems to be taking credit for all the murders revolving around the D-company but is actually not committing these murders.
Jagruti has often been the subject of comments from people around her about how she went from being a reporter to the bureau chief within a short span of seven years in her career. Her relations and the equation that she shares with her sources, be they criminals or police officials, also become a topic of gossip for her colleagues and others. Furthermore, she is also known to be stubborn when it came to her sources, which also resulted in her having clashes with a lot of people, including Jaideb.
Jaideb’s statement about Hussain’s murder invokes Jagruti’s senses as a journalist as she desires to scoop the real reason for Hussain’s suspicious murder. She decides the follow up on this story despite Jaideep warning her to stay away from it. Things take an ugly turn as she becomes a suspect in the murder of Jaideep Sen, in the midst of her investigation of Hussain’s murder.
What led to Jagruti Pathak’s arrest?
While the press is still working on deciphering the reasons for Hussain’s murder, and the truth behind the entire story told by the police, Jaideb Sen is shot dead in broad daylight. Suresh Kalia is arrested as the main shooter in Sen’s murder. Pramod Irani and John Samson, two of Rajan’s top gang members are also arrested by the Mumbai Police. The reason for Sen’s murder is speculated to be the numerous articles by Sen that undermined Chhota Rajan’s power and influence as an underworld don.
As Jagruti works on investigating the case for a scoop, along with Deepa (Inayat Sood), a fellow junior journalist, she gets to know that all the arrests made so far are baseless and there is no confession from Irani, Samson, or Kalia. Senior DCP Harshvardhan Shroff (Harman Baweja) tells Jagruti that it is possible that Rajan found out about Mirchi and Sen’s meeting and called the hit. Twin blasts were funded by Mirchi’s narcotic business and thus, ATS is after Mirchi.
While Jagruti and Deepa had been working together to find the truth behind Jaideb’s murder, things change when Deepa receives a tip from the crime branch about the involvement of a female crime reporter in the murder. The pieces revealed by the police are joined together by Deepa and she gets to know that the female reporter in question is indeed Jagruti. Her desire for fame and success, and her feeling of being envious of Jagruti’s success results in her covering this story by herself.
Imran Siddiqui (Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub), the editor of Eastern Age, seems to favor Jagruti. When Imran tells Deepa that her story is mere speculation and not based on strong evidence, she decides to resign and work for Citi Mirror instead. She is willing to compromise on everything, just to get a page one by-line.
Rizwaan Chhibber (Adhaar Khurana), a journalist for Ab Tak 24/7, goes on record to the Mumbai Crime Branch about Jagruti being the cause of Jaideb’s murder. He tells the police that she had instigated Chhota Rajan against Dada, who published numerous anti-Chhota Rajan articles, resulting in Rajan giving orders for Sen to be shot dead. This, along with a conversation of Chhota Ranjan saying the same thing and mentioning Jagruti, are considered to be evidence, strong enough to arrest her. As Jagruti is being taken away by the police, she asks her uncle to call Bhavesh, a lawyer and a friend, whom she met years ago when she used to work for Morning Journal.
Bhavesh, who was just starting out his career as a Senior Counsel, agrees to defend Jagruti in court. He states how it is a hurriedly made arrest, where MCOCA provisions are not attracted and the connection to organized crime prove to be merely circumstantial and arbitrary. Furthermore, he presents Jagruti as an upstanding citizen, a senior journalist, and a single mother. This resulted in the court keeping the remand period as seven days instead of fifteen, as demanded by the state to investigate Pathak’s connection with co-accused Chhota Rajan.
In a press conference following Jagruti’s arrest, Shroff reveals that the police had concrete evidence against Jagruti. She provided Sen’s details to Chhota Rajan, which included his photograph, bike registration, and address. These details were eventually passed on to the shooter Suresh Kalia, resulting in Sen’s death. Shroff presents the manipulated evidence against Jagruti when he mentions that Jagruti talked on call with Rajan 36 times. However, he knew the truth of Jagruti talking only thrice with Rajan on the office landline.
After having spent six months in jail, Jagruti is advised by Bhavesh to hire Vidya Chaudhary Bisht as her lawyer. Jagruti tells Bhavesh that she does not have enough money to pay him but Bhavesh insists that her priority at the moment should be getting out of jail for her ten-year-old son, Neel. Things start getting better for Jagruti once Bisht takes on her case.
Scoop Ending Explained
Sen’s Smoking Gun – The Dawood-Mumbai Police Nexus Theory
Sen suspected the involvement of IB in Hussain’s murder. He believed that the IB actually wanted to kill Kaskar, as this would result in a reaction from Dawood, which would enable them to trace his current location. IB had made a similar plan to kill Dawood years ago, at his daughter’s wedding in Dubai. They had even hired two of Rajan’s top shooters and trained them. However, Mumbai police arrested the two of them before the plan could be executed and Dawood was saved.
Jaideb’s wife, Shoma (Pubali Sanyal), gives a pen drive to Imran. This pen drive was found by her in a locker, and it seemed as if Sen had that locker, just to protect the drive. It was probably given to Sen by Mirchi to show off the power of D-company over the Mumbai Police. This pen drive contained evidence that could prove the D-Company-Mumbai Police nexus theory right. It contained call records from 5th June 2005, one day before the Delhi double arrests were made on 6th June 2005. Pratap Acharya (Shrirang Godbole) was the Mumbai police commissioner and issued the arrest warrants, while DCP Ramesh Malik (Darshan Dave) went to Delhi to make the arrests.
Acharya’s office tipped off the inquiry on the Karjat land deal to pressure Guha as a bonus while the real target was Vishwas Gill, the majority investor in the deal and the owner of Swadesh TV, a channel known for presenting several anti-ATS stories, implying that these stories were anti-Ramesh Malik.
Acharya had put Malik on the map, handing him the ‘93 blasts investigations. He expected Malik to repay his debts. He actually did so when Acharya’s name was suddenly dropped from being involved in the cricket betting controversy of 1999-2000, in which Rajan’s right-hand man, Irani was arrested for being the bookie. Malik was handling this entire investigation.
Imran joins all the pieces of the puzzle and discovers that Dada had gone to Europe to meet Mirchi and Irani to dig deeper into his nexus theory. He had also met Malik there. Sen thought that Malik might help him, as even he would want to catch Dawood. Imran and Jagruti conclude that it could be Sen who actually tipped Acharya or Malik, or both, and it was Sen’s desire to expose Mumbai Police’s role in protecting Dawood that became the reason for his murder.
Did Jagruti Get Bail?
Jagruti’s lawyer, Bisht, proves to the court that Pathak had been arrested on unfair grounds. He says that the prosecution has used the exceptional provisions of MCOCA to use extrajudicial evidence in the court, which would otherwise be considered baseless. The 36 calls between Jagruti and Rajan disappeared suddenly after the forensic report and find no mention in the chargesheet against her.
The prosecution claims that it was Jagruti’s attempt to escape at the time of Jaideb’s murder, as she submitted the official application for leave from office, 15 days after the holiday. These claims are also falsified by Bisht as he presents to the court that Jagruti had informed Imran about her family trip to Kashmir, via mail, two weeks before the trip, and one month before Sen’s murder. She had even made booked the flight and hotel almost three months in advance.
Jagruti is finally given bail after spending more than nine months in jail. She gets back to her home with her family but her memories about her experience in the jail continue to haunt her in nightmares. However, her son continues to support her and provide her strength.
She meets Imran after being released but expresses her concern about not having the strength to get back to doing what she used to do. However, when Imran tells her about Sen’s smoking gun, she decides to do it. She thinks that while Sen died trying to do his job, she survived to tell the tale.
Scoop is now streaming on Netflix.
Read More: Fast X Ending Explained & Post-Credits Scene: Does Dom Save His Family?
Summary looks tempting