TRP case: Mumbai Police names Arnab Goswami as accused in second chargesheet

Several TV news channels were accused of tampering with the TRPs by the Mumbai Police in October last year. The police claimed they busted a TRP manipulation racket following a probe initiated after a complaint by TV viewership measurement agency BARC.

The Mumbai Police on Tuesday named Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami as an accused in the alleged Television Rating Points (TRP) rigging case in its second chargesheet filed before a court.

Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.

The chargesheet was submitted before a magistrate's court by the police's Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) probing the case.

"Among others, Goswami and ARG Outlier have been named as accused in the chargesheet," lawyer of the senior journalist said.

Several television news channels were accused of tampering with the TRPs by the Mumbai Police in October last year. The police claimed they busted a TRP manipulation racket following a probe initiated after a complaint by TV viewership measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

Rating agency Hansa Services Private Limited, a contractor of BARC, which functions under ministry of information and broadcasting and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) filed a complaint with the Mumbai Police, alleging that some TV channels were manipulating their TRPs.

The complainant firm said that the manipulated TRP ratings resulted in miscalculated targeted audience for the advertisers, which in turn resulted into losses of hundreds of crores of rupees because of the manipulated statistics of TRP.

TRP, a tool to judge which TV programmes are viewed the most, indicates the popularity of a particular channel.