More Evidence Found Against Republic TV In TRP Scam Case, Mumbai Police Tells Bombay High Court

The Mumbai Police on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that it has found more evidence against Republic TV in the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam case.In the light of that fact, the Mumbai police told the Court that it did not want to continue its earlier undertaking to refrain from taking coercive action against the accused in the case.This submission was made by the counsel of Mumbai police, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, before a bench comprising Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik which is hearing a petition filed by ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd(company running Republic TV and R Bharat channels) seeking to quash the FIR/chargesheet in the TRP scam case.However, Mr. Sibal conceded to continue the undertaking till January 15, considering the fact that the counsel of ARG Outlier Media sought for adjournment as the senior counsel representing the company was not available today due to a medical emergency."We have found evidence on record through investigation with BARC(Broadcast Audience Research Council). Milords may record my statement that I do not wish to continue my statement", Sibal submitted.Sibal added that the former CEO of BARC, Partho Dasgupta, was arrested by the Mumbai police recently in the TRP case. Yesterday, a Magistrate in Mumbai denied Dasgupta - who was BARC CEO from June 2013 to November 2019 - bail observing that he "manipulated TRP for particular TV channels by using his office as CEO of BARC".Sibal submitted that this is a significant development in the case and told the bench that the police will submit a status report by the next date of hearing. The TRP Scam FIR was registered by the Mumbai police in October last year.In November, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch filed a 1,400-page chargesheet in the case, naming six channels, including those of Republic Media Network and News Nation, as allegedly paying money to boost TRPs for around two years.The company running Republic TV channels and Goswami moved the High Court seeking to restrain coercive action by Mumbai police and handing over of the investigation to the CBI.The petitioners' counsel, Senior Advocate Abad Ponda, had read out from the chargesheet to point out that the police had mentioned in the chargesheet, the owners, managers, and related persons of Republic TV, as suspects in the case.Meanwhile, the police arrested the Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani in the case. The police also sought to arrest the Chief Operating Officer of the channel, Priya Mukherjee, in the case. However, she was granted anticipatory bail by the court.On December 16 last year, Sibal had submitted in the HC that no coercive action would be taken against Goswami or any other employees of ARG Outlier Media (AOM), which runs Republic TV, till January 6.

More Evidence Found Against Republic TV In TRP Scam Case, Mumbai Police Tells Bombay High Court

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