E-Paper
TRP fraud: Four accused to stay in Mumbai Police’s custody till Friday
Four of the five accused arrested in connection with the manipulation of television rating points (TRPs) by three TV channels will stay in police custody till October
Four of the five accused arrested in connection with the manipulation of television rating points (TRPs) by three TV channels will stay in police custody till October 16, even as the crime branch recorded statements of Hansa Research’s CEO Praveen Nijhara and deputy general manager Nitin Deokar for the second consecutive day.
The crime branch arrested Vishal Bhandari, 20, former employee of Hansa Research; Bompalli Rao alias Sanjiv Rao, 44 (on October 6); Shirish Shetty, owner of Fakt Maratha; and Narayan Sharma of Box Cinema (on October 9).
The fifth accused, Vinay Tripathi, a former employee of Hansa Research, who was arrested from Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh, was produced in a local court and given transit remand till October 15. “We have asked Nijhara and Deokar to submit the list of employees from the past five years,” said assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze. “We have also recorded statements of Republic TV’s distribution head Ghanshyam Singh. We have recorded statements of Prasant Kumar, CEO of Group M Advertising. Madison World’s founder and chairman Sam Balsara’s statement was recorded earlier and he submitted a few documents on Tuesday,” said Vaze.
Meanwhile, crime branch has issued summons two executive editors of Republic TV Niranjan Narayanswamy and Abhishek Kapoor and asked them to be present to record their statements on Wednesday. The crime branch has initiated a separate inquiry in connection with a document, alleged to be a report of Hansa, shown on Republic TV.
The crime branch mentioned in the summons that “the document telecast, purportedly belongs to Hansa Research Group private limited, and the same is required to be ascertained from you.”
Claiming that they were being targetted by the Mumbai Police, Republic TV in its statement said: “The right to report is guaranteed under Article 19(1) of the Constitution... Republic Media Network will fight this...”
A crime branch team comprising four officers visited Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) office and recorded statements of a few officers, said officials.
