# Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach

Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach is an Indian Hindi-language legal drama television series directed by Rohan Sippy. Starring Pankaj Tripathi, Shweta Basu Prasad, Purab Kohli, Swastika Mukherjee and Adinath Kothare in prominent roles, the storyline follows the murder case of a teenage celebrity. It premiered on 26 August 2022 and is the third installment in Hotstar Specials' anthology courtroom drama, Criminal Justice.

## Synopsis

Mukul Ahuja is the spoilt teenage son of Avantika and Arvind Ahuja, and the stepson of Neeraj Ahuja. Neeraj's daughter, Zara Ahuja, is a child star who appears in a teleseries called Bittu. The Ahujas practically live off of the money earned by Zara. A property developer in Madh Island hires Zara to shoot an ad for his upcoming project. The night before the shoot, both Mukul and Zara sneak out of their villa separately and end up in the same party. They have a heated argument in public before leaving the party.
Mukul returns home, but Zara does not. Her body is later found drowned in the sea, with acid burns on her face. All circumstantial evidence points to Mukul, leading to his arrest and placement in an observation home for juveniles. Prosecutor Lekha is appointed to represent the State of Maharashtra and is almost prejudiced in her determination to convict Mukul. Meanwhile, Zara's parents hire Madhav Mishra as defense counsel, but Mukul lacks confidence in his lawyer and tries to find his own way out of the situation.

## Cast

* Pankaj Tripathi as Advocate Madhav Mishra, Mukul's lawyer
* Shweta Basu Prasad as Prosecutor Lekha Agastya
* Purab Kohli as Neeraj Ahuja, Mukul's step-father
* Swastika Mukherjee as Avantika Ahuja, Mukul's mother
* Aaditya Gupta as Mukul Ahuja, Zara's elder step-brother
* Deshna Dugad as Zara Ahuja, Mukul's younger step-sister
* Gaurav Gera as Arvind Ahuja, Mukul's father
* Khushboo Atre as Ratna Mishra, Madhav's wife
* Adinath Kothare as Inspector Prashant Waghmare
* Kalyanee Mulay as Gauri Karmarkar
* Sushil Kumar as Sachin
* Rushad Rana as Vicky Kumar
* Chandresh Singh
* Ishrat Khan
* Rajesh Khera as Solkar, Lekha's senior
* Upendra Limaye as Superintendent Juvenile justice home
* Aatm Prakash Mishra as Deepu, Madhav's assistant

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date |
| 1 | "A Dark Night" | Rohan Sippy | 26 August 2022 (2022-08-26) |
| 2 | "Web of Lies" | Rohan Sippy | 26 August 2022 (2022-08-26) |
| 3 | "Bail Denied" | Rohan Sippy | 2 September 2022 (2022-09-02) |
| 4 | "Section 15" | Rohan Sippy | 9 September 2022 (2022-09-09) |
| 5 | "Confirmation Bias" | Rohan Sippy | 16 September 2022 (2022-09-16) |
| 6 | "The Breaking Point" | Rohan Sippy | 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) |
| 7 | "Digging Deeper" | Rohan Sippy | 30 September 2022 (2022-09-30) |
| 8 | "Nothing but the Truth" | Rohan Sippy | 7 October 2022 (2022-10-07) |

## Release

On 10 August 2022, Disney+ Hotstar released the trailer and announced the release date. The series premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 26 August 2022 and concluded on 7 October 2022.

## Reception

The series received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Subhash K. Jha, reviewing on Firstpost, praised the "storytelling structure, giving to each episode a kind of free-flowing momentum that doesn’t seem artificial or simulated" and added that the "new season manages to go beyond the other two seasons in the pursuit of an engaging thriller perched on the legal theme." Agnivo Niyogi of The Telegraph praised the screenplay and acting performances, calling the series "an instant hit". Nandini Ramnath wrote on Scroll.in that Pankaj Tripathi "hugely boosts the new edition, even if he can’t quite rescue it entirely."
Archika Khurana of The Times of India gave the series three stars out of five, calling it an "engaging legal drama with emotionally dragging scenes", which is "overly stretched before the actual action and courtroom drama begins." Srijita Sen of News18 opined that important topics like trial by media, juvenile justice system, substance abuse and mental health issues in adolescents remained underexplored due to "unnecessary, slow-paced drama". Abhimanyu Mathur of Hindustan Times was critical of the storyline for sidetracking from the show's original theme of portraying "the shortcomings of India’s legal systems" and labelled it a "run-of-the-mill murder mystery".