Criminal Justice (Indian TV series)


Criminal Justice is an Indian series based on Criminal Justice by Peter Moffat, adapted for India by Shridhar Raghavan streaming on Hotstar on its new label Hotstar Specials on 5 April 2019. It is directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and Vishal Furia starring Pankaj Tripathi, Vikrant Massey, Jackie Shroff, Anupriya Goenka and Mita Vashisht in lead roles.
The series was renewed for a second season in February 2020.

Plot

Aditya is a cab driver who has a one-night stand with his passenger Sanaya. When he wakes up, Sanaya is murdered. He finds himself in a pool of her blood, and her with multiple stab wounds. He leaves the crime scene, but, he meets with an accident and is taken to the police station.
Initially, Madhav Mishra is interested in taking the case but later on Mandira Mathur takes her case and is successful in getting Aditya free of charge from rape, but fails to acquit him of the murder charges.
The story continues as his lawyer, Nikhat Hussain along with Madhav Mishra, tries to save him. While Aditya gets a life imprisonment for murder of Sanaya, but Madhav Mishra still believes that Aditya is innocent. Initially, he figured out from Sanaya's Instagram account that Sanaya was working at a drug rehabilitation center, after herself being treated there. During wrapping up the case documents, he again goes through Sanaya's call records and gets a crucial lead. Upon enquiring one of the policeman said, that Sanaya had called up four wrong numbers that day, which Madhav found to be strange. On his hunch he enquired about the past records of these numbers and got to know that these numbers belonged to professional drug dealers whom Sanaya tried to contact. It turned out that Sanaya, after staying away from drugs for 3 years, suddenly wanted to go back to drugs a night before she was killed. She was part of a charity where her father's close friend and wife were the owners. She found out that they were engaging in child prostitution and was going to go to the police, and so the wife killed her. It turns out that the asthma pump police thought were Aditya's were hers.

Cast

The official trailer of the series was launched by Hotstar Specials on 28 March 2019. The description accompanying the trailer reads, "A one night stand turns into a nightmare for Aditya when he wakes up with blood on his hands."

Episodes

Reception

Sana Farzeen writing for Indian Express says, "Vikrant Massey stands out playing a young boy who suddenly finds himself in a grave situation. Pankaj Tripathi once again aces a character with dry humor, making you smirk at his witty lines." The critic recommends Criminal Justice for those who like crime-based dramas. Rohan Naahar of Hindustan Times rates it with 3.5/5 stars and feels that the series being a remake relies on its actors to do the heavy lifting. He opines, "Fortunately, Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi and especially Jackie Shroff, are tremendous." Udita Jhunjhunwala, reviewing for The Quint writes "Supporting cast members Saraswat, Rucha Inamdar and Gaurav Dwivedi and Madhurima Roy as the murdered girl are the most convincing." Parmita Uniyal of India Today said that "'s performance is one of the high points of the series, something that stays with you," while also saying that " could have a stronger impact with shorter episodes, crisper editing and right twists and turns."

Accolades