A Mumbai court on 6th March, Wednesday, allowed the crime branch of Mumbai police to withdraw their case of the alleged scam of fake (TRP) Television Rating Points of 2020. The Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami was one of the many accused for being involved in the same. The Mumbai State Government through the Mumbai Police had filed an application seeking withdrawal of the scam case in November, 2023.
Metropolitan Magistrate LS Padhen of Esplanade court permitted withdrawal of the FIR no. 843 of 2020 registered for the case after Shishir Hiray, special public prosecutor, representing Police told the Court that continuing these criminal proceedings would only end up wasting the court’s precious time rather than leading to conviction. Therefore, requesting for withdrawal of prosecution (under section 321) of the CrPc. (Criminal Procedure Code)
The “Fake TRP” scam happened in 2020 and came into light when the crime branch discovered some employees of the Hansa Research Group, manipulating the ‘sampling metering services’ by paying people to watch specific television news channels. The allegations were highlighted in October 2020 after the Broadcast Audience Research Council filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group, on engagement with “people’s meters” also known as panel homes.
In the case, news channels were accused of rigging their Rating Points by bribing households to watch them. This case was handled by the then police commissioner of Mumbai, Param Bir Singh. Hiray said, The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a money laundering case on the basis of the Mumbai police FIR. They also cleared the Republic TV group and R Bharat of the charges of manipulating numbers in the case in its investigation. He also said that the court was informed of this conflicting evidence.
They arrested Vishal Ved Bhandari who exposed the fact that he used to increase the TRP of channels. During their interrogation with the people who were induced, the owners agreed that they had received money to keep their televisions switched on to a specific channel. The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) which comes under the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India measured the ratings with the help of some barometers.
The Crime Branch had then filed a chargesheet in November which showcased that the channels associated with Republic TV had benefited from the scam and had played around with their
viewership to gain more revenue and advertisements. However, they chargesheeted Arnab Goswami in June 2021 as an accused in the same case. The police had arrested around 10 people in the case and all the accused were eventually granted bail.
The Crime Branch filed an application in November, last year seeking withdrawal of the case which was finally allowed by the Magistrate yesterday. The application stated that the State home department made a decision to take down the case, in lieu of various factors including contradictions in the Mumbai police probe. The court then passed an order allowing the application for withdrawal, however, further details are awaited.
