Mumbai, June 23: Senior television journalist Arnab Goswami illegally tampered with the TRPs in connivance of the then CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta to improve ratings of Republic TV channels and paid him for his help, as per the supplementary charge sheet filed by the Mumbai Police who cited Whatsapp chats between the duo as a "crucial evidence".
The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai Police on Tuesday filed a third charge sheet before a magistrate's court here in the alleged fake Television Ratings Points (TRP) scam. Besides Goswami, the Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, and ARG Outlier Media that runs Republic TV channels, the police also named six other accused including some employees of Republic group channels in the latest charge sheet.
"We have found evidence to show they (Goswami and Dasgupta) had exchanged confidential information about the BARC repeatedly to benefit Goswami's channels," the charge sheet said. During the period between June 2017 and March 2018 when Dasgupta was working with the BARC, the TRP ratings of an English news channel were illegally manipulated so that they fall below the TRPs of Republic TV channels, which resulted in Rs 431 crore loss to that channel, police said, citing the statement of an executive of the news channel.
Police further said they possess the evidence to show that Goswami had paid Dasgupta in return for the latter's assistance in manipulating the TRPs, "which was evident from the jewellery and expensive items seized from Dasgupta's residence", the charge sheet said. Dasgupta, who had been named as accused in the previous charge sheet, was arrested in December last year.
He is currently out on bail. The first charge sheet in the TRP rigging case, filed in November last year, had named Dasgupta and Republic TV CEO Vikash Khanchandani. The alleged fake TRP scam came to light in October last year when the rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group (HRG), alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.
The HRG had been tasked with installing barometers for recording channel viewership data at sample households. Police had arrested dozens of people, including the top officials of BARC and Republic TV.
Most of them are currently out on bail. In March this year, the Bombay High Court had asked the Mumbai police why Republic TV and Goswami had not been named as accused in the case if the investigators believed to possess adequate evidence against them.
The ARG Outlier Media and Goswami had approached the high court last year, filing a bunch of petitions seeking several reliefs in the alleged TRP scam. They had alleged that the whole case was malafide and they had been targeted for Republic TV's reportage in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and the Palghar lynching case last year.
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CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY, RAPE, MURDER, ATROCITIES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, CONTRACT KILLING, INDIA
I am over 75 years old and I have studied, worked and travelled around the world for over fifty years. I frequently travel around the world and frequently visit my native village in UP. Indian leaders due to the lack of knowledge and the proper education, training, moral have made India a regime of terror. The politicians and the executives have made India a horrible place to live where no one and no one's property is safe, In UP the contract killers are available for the Rs. 5000.00. My younger brother, his family and my late fathers extended family by the gun violence possessed my properties, criminally conspired with four IAS and four PCS and contracted my murder to legalize the looting of my properties through a relative employed as Lekhpal in the Tehsil where my property is located. I prayed to Modi, PM, Yogi CM UP and Who's Who of India for my protection and for the protection of my properties, everyone ignored my prayers. Indian leaders lack leadership, courage, education and moral to make India a safe country. Hindu religion is used to hoodwink the people of India and people around the world. The world due to highway information technology has collected ample irrefutable evidence to declare India unsafe and the future of India is irreparably ruined by unethical leaders and elites. New India is similar to Germany from 1933 to 1945, under the late Adolf Hitler. The politicians and executives are abusing the legal process to persecute the political opposition parties, their enemies and whoever they dislike. The Honourable High Courts and the Supreme Court of India are the only ones with the wisdom to put India on the solid path.
Ramesh Mishra
Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA
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