Celina Jaitly responds after Delhi High Court disposes plea over brother’s refusal to communicate

Actor Celina Jaitly has reacted after the Delhi High Court dismissed her petition seeking communication and legal assistance for her brother, Major (Retd.) Vikrant Jaitly, who is currently detained in the United Arab Emirates. According to a reports, the court disposed of the plea after being informed that Vikrant Jaitly had declined to communicate with his sister and preferred to make legal decisions in consultation with his wife, Charul Jaitly. The court was also told that he had been granted consular access on multiple occasions and had refused legal representation offered to him, including pro bono assistance. Responding to the development, Celina Jaitly shared a note on Instagram expressing concern while acknowledging the court’s decision. She wrote, “Today was the last hearing of my writ petition. I had approached the Hon’ble Court out of deep concern for the safety, security & well being of my brother.” She added, “He is in a foreign nation & as his sister, I felt it w...

‘It has become a sort of silver bullet’: why are rap lyrics being put on trial?

In compelling documentary As We Speak, a controversial legal practice that uses rap lyrics to secure convictions is explored

In September 2001, McKinley Phipps Jr, also known as the rapper Mac, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter. It had been a year and a half since gunfire erupted outside a club where he was slated to perform in Slidell, Louisiana, resulting in the death of 19-year-old Barron Victor Jr. Phipps, then 22, maintained his innocence, and the case against him was weak – there was no gun linking him to the crime, several witnesses recanted their testimony and another person confessed to pulling the trigger. And yet, prosecutors had their trump card: Mac, a former New Orleans rap prodigy who began releasing music at the age of 13, had rapped about murder.

“Murder, murder, kill, kill”, Phipps recites in As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, a new documentary on the criminalization of rap lyrics. Prosecutors spliced that line with one from a different song – “Pull the trigger, put a bullet in your head” – to create the portrait of a killer; Mac’s art was the evidence that DNA, solid confessions, or a missing weapon couldn’t provide. An all-white jury bought it. Phipps served over 21 years in prison before being granted clemency in 2021.

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