Bombay high court grants bail to former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta, accused in TRP case
The bail was granted on a personal bond of ₹2lakh and two solvent sureties of the same amount.
The Bombay high court on Tuesday granted bail to former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta who is accused in the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam case.
The bail was granted on a personal bond of ₹2lakh and two solvent sureties of the same amount. The court permitted him to furnish temporary cash surety of the same amount for a period of six weeks, by which he would have to submit the solvent sureties.
In January this year, he had approached the high court after a sessions court rejected his bail plea while observing that Dasgupta had played a vital role in the scam and appears to be "appears to be the mastermind" of the scam.
However, Dasgupta has denied any wrongdoing.
He was arrested on December 24 last year. Police investigating the rigging of TRPs have accused Dasgupta of exploiting his position for conniving with the owner of the media house to manipulate TRPs.
Earlier this year, several television news channels were accused of tampering with TRPs by the Mumbai Police. The police claimed that they have busted a TRP manipulation racket following a probe initiated after a complaint by TV viewership measurement agency BARC.
TRP is a tool to judge which TV programmes are viewed the most and it indicates the popularity of a particular channel.