A celebrated Bollywood director Rohan Khurana stands accused by a female member of his crew, Anjali Dangle of having raped her at his residence.
Notable film director Rohan Khurana (Rahul Bhat) is arrested and convicted by a sessions court after assistant costume designer Anjali Dangle (Meera Chopra) accuses him of sexual assault.Anjali returns home and breaks down and her family taker her to a police station to file an FIR. She first has to undergo a police officer verified medical examination to determine sexual assault. The medical examination is demeaning and humiliating, which has fairly detailed questions asked by a empathy less medical person (Dibyendu Bhattacharya) about everything that happened during the physical act of sexual assault. Anjali's mom (Shama Nivane) is present during the examination.
The sessions court quickly delivers the verdict and sentences Rohan to 10 years prison. Kainaaz Khurana (Shriswara), Rohan's wife goes to Advocate Tarun Saluja (Akshaye Khanna) to file an appeal. Tarun agrees to take the case but will charge higher as these high-profile cases pay for his pro-Bono work. Shilpa (Sandhya Mridul) is Tarun's wife.
Tarun goes by his principle Law is a fact, Justice is abstract and believes that a lawyer should not get emotionally involved in a case or get into an ethical debate. At a seminar in a flashback, also attended by Hiral, he surmises how justice is left out without proper defense, noting that the pursuit of justice is nothing but a career opportunity for the defense lawyer, prosecution & the judges as well. He summarizes this with his line " We're in the business of law, not of Justice". This is completely contrary to Hiral's attitude, as she gets passionately involved in her pursuit to deliver justice. For this very reason, she had to quit Tarun's law firm in the past.
In the High Court, senior and talented criminal barrister Tarun Saluja (Akshaye Khanna) works hard to punch holes in the accuser's claims, while Hiral Ghandi (Richa Chadda), a Utopian and fervent lawyer fighting her first big case, who was once Saluja's trainee, serves as the prosecutor and defense barrister of the claimed victim. Judges are Justice Indrani (Kruttika Desai) and Madgaonkar (Kishor Kadam).
Tarun starts his defense by proving that the PSI Milind Kasle (Shrikant Yadav) actually demanded bribe of Rs 20 Lakhs from Rohan and when Rohan refused to pay, the SI wrote Anjali's FIR and then arrested him, a full 6 hours after Anjali entered the police station. He then kept Rohan's phone under his custody against procedure, so that he could hide evidence of his bribe phone calls to Rohan. Then Kasle went to Rohan's house and took the bed sheet from Rohan's room and kept it in his custody, rather than properly collecting it via an investigating agency, and sent it to the forensic lab after 5 days. Tarun creates enough doubt that Kasle was biased, because he wasn't paid a bribe.
The court agrees that the chain of custody was broken, but also says that Kasle does not have the mental acumen to tamper with the evidence and allows the evidence to be considered.Next Tarun produces evidence that even though Anjali claims she screamed, none of the neighbors heard anything. She was wearing a tight jean, which is difficult to wear and remove (so Rohan could not have removed it by himself). His house maid was out for just 22 mins, which is not enough time to complete all of this. He also provides evidence that Rohan's nails had no trace of Anjali's skin or cells (which would be there if he had grabbed her or held her by her hair). Also, the marks on the back of Rohan point to a passionate sexual intercourse and not sexual assault. Tarun admits that Rohan and Anjali had sex that day, but it was consensual. The beating marks on Anjali were from her brother (after she reported the sexual assault at home), not from Rohan. Anjali now says that first she was beaten by Rohan and then her brother.
Tarun produces video footage of Rohan's colony to show that Anjali was at Rohan's apartment 4 days before the sexual assault as well. But Hiral counters that even if Anjali was having an affair with Rohan, that does not mean Rohan did not sexual assault Anjali on that day in question. Now Rohan confesses that he did in fact have an affair with Anjali, who got super possessive and wanted to marry him. Which is why he wanted to break things up with her.
Tarun proposes the theory that Anjali had a consensual relation with Rohan which started with the pressure of retaining her job, but with time she got emotionally involved in the relationship. Later, when she realizes that Rohan is only interested in a physical relationship with her whereas she was expecting him to be her life partner, there is a big argument between the two on this issue. Rohan belittles her and tells her that without him her career is over. Later, Rohan throws her out of his second flat where they pursued their relationship. After a couple of days, Anjali apologizes to Rohan & they rekindle their relationship. Later in the day, she reports this incident as sexual assault to police.
Insisting that it is a case of an affair gone sour, Tarun Saluja points out that the law does not regard consensual physical relations as sexual assault. Hiral Gandhi refuses to call it anything but sexual assault, demanding justice to be served. The case disputes the legal provisions of the penal code 375 that defines conditions under which a sexual offense can be defined as sexual assault.
The judges are put in a tough spot because on one hand, it is clear that Anjali had filed this case to avenge her humiliation, and on the other hand, there is a strong public perception that rich and influential people are exploiting the underprivileged. The two judges deliberate on the case in their chamber. A judgment in favor of Tarun would badly reflect on their credentials, despite circumstantial evidence clearly pointing to fake sexual assault charges. One of the judges peeks from the balcony and sees protests against the accused going out of control, and it is clear what their judgment would be.
The bench, while delivering the verdict accepts the merit of the case presented by Tarun, but public sentiment forces the bench to strictly go by the book and deliver the judgment in line with popular opinion. The judges uphold the session court judgment which states that since there is no evidence of consent or force for this particular incident, the statement of the victim is considered as paramount evidence.
Rohan's wife Kainaz indicates to him that she will not aid him anymore, and leaves. Tarun promises Rohan that he will approach the Supreme Court immediately. Rohan is taken to prison, and Anjali confesses in secret to Hiral that what Tarun had said in the court was true and she did this only to get revenge at Rohan. Hiral is shocked by this and is later invited for dinner by Tarun's family. Tarun once again reminds her "We're in the business of law, not of Justice", a principle she has now truly understood.
