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Charge sheet by Mumbai Police in TRP case solely targeted at Arnab, his counsel tells HC
He said that the act reeked of malice, mala fide and an unnatural way of collecting evidence by Mumbai Police
Claiming that the first information report (FIR) and charge sheet filed in the television rating points (TRP) case by Mumbai Police was solely targeted at Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, his counsel on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that though former cop Sachin Waze was informed of the alleged TRP manipulation in June 2020, police commissioner Param Bir Singh took a press conference to announce a probe into the case after four months.
A division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice Manish Pitale, while hearing the petition filed by ARG Outlier Media – which runs Republic TV – and Goswami, seeking quashing of the FIR and charge sheet against some of the key employees of the media house, was informed by senior counsel Ashok Mundargi that the police has not named Goswami in their charge sheet because they want to keep the criminal prosecution open-ended.
Mundargi submitted that the ploy adopted by the police was to name ARG Outlier Media employees, which included chalak-malak and sambandhit vyakti (operator, owner and other persons concerned), but not Goswami, so that the probe can be open-ended and people connected with the channel can be harassed.
Mundargi added that Singh told media that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) had implicated Republic TV. However, BARC had not initiated any inquiry against Republic TV, and no material was provided by them to the police either to show that the media house was involved in TRP manipulation.
When the court sought to know if the police could hold such press conferences to reinforce public trust in the police machinery, Mundargi responded, “There was no public outcry. No one knew about the alleged TRP scam and then the senior police officer comes before the media. The action on part of the police officer is with mala fide. There is no sufficient material to substantiate whatever was being said by him.”
He summarised that the act reeked of malice, malafide and an unnatural way of collecting evidence by Mumbai Police. There was an effort to somehow name the petitioner’s channel by hook or crook.
The court asked chief public prosecutor Deepak Thakare how long the investigations would continue, as two charge sheets had already been filed. Thakare said the probe would be completed as soon as possible.
HC will continue hearing ARG’s plea on Wednesday.
