Scoop follows Jagruti Pathak, a crime reporter whose life changes completely when she is falsely accused of being involved in the murder of another journalist. The series is now streaming on Netflix.Â
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Jagruti Pathak is a crime reporter who works for Eastern Age. Due to her incredible sources, which include police officials as well as criminals, she is always ahead of the others in securing major scoops and becomes the Deputy Bureau Chief and Senior Crime Reporter in just seven years.
The story takes place in 2011, when Mumbai’s two infamous gangsters, Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, were living outside India. The two rivals were involved in gang wars in the past and even in Mumbai double bomb blasts in 2010.
When Dawood’s brother’s driver is shot to death, Mumbai Crime Branch claims that it was the work of Chhota Rajan. This makes a senior journalist, Jaideb Sen, suspicious, as he believes that the police conveniently blame everything on Chota Rajan, who obediently takes responsibility the next day.
To get an interview with Chota Rajan and tell his side of the story, Jagruti meets one of his close men, Samson, who asks her to give him information about Sen in exchange for the interview. Jagruti never gives him this information, yet she gets the interview.
Soon after, Sen warns Jagruti to stay out of this matter, and a few days later, he gets killed in broad daylight. Once again, the police put the blame on Rajan and arrest his men. Sen was very close to Jagruti’s boss and mentor, Imran, who refuses to print false but sensational stories about Sen.
Another journalist gets a call from a man who claims to be Rajan and is told that it was Jagruti who instigated him to kill Sen and even gave him Sen’s personal information.
Word spreads among all the prominent journalists. Jagruti is even brought in for questioning by the police. Imran and JCP Shroff, who is one of Jagruti’s main sources, believe that she is innocent and agree to prevent the news from becoming public.
When the news about a female reporter’s involvement gets out, Jagruti’s own mentee connects the dots and prints the news with another paper when Imran refuses to run this story.
When the Crime Branch fails to solve Sen’s case and the Mumbai Press Association as well as the public demand that the case should get transferred to the CBI, the Crime Branch, including Shroff, decide to frame Jagruti and arrest her under Maharashtra Control Of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Jagruti goes from being a reputed journalist to a criminal involved in organized crime overnight. Jagruti’s old friend, Bhavesh, represents her in court, but he is unable to prove that she is not guilty, and Jagruti is sent to judicial custody.
Although the police still do not have any evidence against her and fail to file a chargesheet for months, her character is assassinated in the media. Her ex-husband calls her a criminal publicly, and her boyfriend also denies having a relationship with her.
Her family, including her ten-year-old son, is harassed by the media and has to face financial difficulties, as they have to bear the expenses related to her case. A colleague who was jealous of her gets her position at work, and when Imran stands up for her, he gets fired.
Additionally, she is tortured in prison by the most powerful inmate, as Jagruti once wrote a piece about her. The police file a chargesheet months after her arrest, and it does not have any mentions of the evidence the police earlier claimed they had against her.
Jagruti’s life finally changes in prison with the arrival of a new inmate, Sadhvi Ma, who is a powerful woman and takes Jagruti under her protection. She even gets Jagruti access to her chargesheet, allowing her to study her case in prison.
Meanwhile, Imran and a journalist, Sandeep, who worked with Sen, work together to unravel the mystery of Sen’s death and prove Jagruti’s innocence.
Scoop ending explained in detail:
What does Imran find out about Sen’s case?
Sandeep tells Imran that before his death, Sen went to Europe and found something big. He also went to meet Rajan’s right-hand man, Irani, who was accused with Jagruti, to confirm the story, and Irani warned him that this story will get him killed.
Sen’s wife then finds a flash drive that Sen left in a bank safe and gives it to Imran. The flash drive contains call records, which Imran and Sandeep believe were given to him by a man named Iqbal Mirchi, who used to be an important member of Dawood’s gang.
They know that Sen believed that Mumbai police were protecting Dawood and his men. The two of them also know that Sen met someone after meeting Irani; the meeting with this person rattled him. They suspect this man to be ACP Ramesh Malik.
Does Jagruti get bail?
The forensic report, which was supposed to bring incriminating evidence against Jagruti to light, finally comes, and even that fails to provide any evidence against her, despite the police’s best efforts.
Additionally, Bhavesh suggests that Jagruti hire a more experienced lawyer who would be able to represent her side of the story better, and Jagruti agrees.
Her new lawyer is able to prove that the charges against her are baseless and that she was arrested under MCOCA only because it has provisions wherein extra-judicial confessions, like that of Rajan’s phone, are admissible in court.
Jagruti realizes that she is not entirely innocent, as she is also responsible for the death of journalism. She then refuses to take any more favors from Sadhvi Ma.
After more than nine months in prison, where she had to face hunger, sickness, and even physical assault, Jagruti gets bail. She returns home and reunites with her family, but the bad memories of prison still haunt her.
Why was Jagruti accused?
Imran gives Jagruti the call records that Sen had in his possession and tells her that these are Pratap Acharya, who is the leader of the ruling party, and Chhota Shakeel’s records from a night before a double arrest was made in Delhi in 2005.
At that time, the Intelligence Bureau was training two of Rajan’s men to assassinate Dawood, but the two men were arrested by Ramesh Malik, who was the Deputy Commissioner of Police back then, in Delhi.
Imran believes that the Mumbai police were protecting Dawood, and Shakeel warned Acharya, who was the Commissioner of Police, about the danger to Dawood’s life. Acharya sent Malik to arrest the two men, and Dawood was saved.
Sen had found out about this in Europe and had met Irani as well as Malik to confirm it. Irani also had links with Acharya, so he possibly tipped off Acharya or Malik or both of them.
To prevent the news about Mumbai Police and Dawood from getting out, Sen was killed; Rajan had nothing to do with his death. At the same time, they needed a scapegoat to distract the public, and Jagruti was perfect, as she had connections to the police as well as the gangs.
Initially, Jagruti is not ready to work as a criminal reporter again and go back to her old life, but after Imran’s explanation, she asks him if this is going to be a news piece or a book, which means that she might work with him again.
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