TRP fraud: Mumbai Police’s crime branch arrests another former employee of Hansa Research Group

Mumbai Police’s crime branch on Friday arrested Umesh Mishra, 30, a former employee of Hansa Research Group, from Virar area. This is the six arrest made in connection with the investigation into the manipulation of television rating points (TRPs) by three channels.

HT Image

Mishra, an Andheri resident, had left the company two years ago and was hiding in Virar, said crime branch officers. “Though he left the company, he still distributed money to households where barometers were installed for fake TRP. His name came up during the interrogation of Vinay Tripathi, a former employee of Hansa who was arrested from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh,” said inspector Sachin Vaze, who is conducting an inquiry in the case.

Earlier on Friday, four accused — Vishal Bhandari and Bompalli Rao Mistry alias Sanjiv Rao, both arrested on October 6; Shirish Shetty, owner of Fakt Marathi, and Narayan Sharma, owner of Box Cinema, both arrested on October 9 — were produced in the court after their custody ended on Friday. The court sent them to judicial custody for 14 days till October 30. Shetty and Sharma have applied for bail and their hearing will be on October 19, added Vaze.

Meanwhile, crime branch recorded the statement of Hari Prasad, national head of Ebixcash. “Ebixcash has given advertisements to Republic TV. So we are questioning advertisers to understand how TRPs are important for them, and on what basis they gave them advertisement,” said Vaze.

Robin Raina, CEO of Ebixcash, has also summoned but he did not come as he was under quarantine due to Covid-19. Fakt Marathi’s CFO Sajjan Agarwal was questioned, during which he said advertisements are the only source of income of his channel, added Vaze.

“We have summoned a few employees of Hansa Research because they have not submitted the documents which we had asked them to submit. Republic TV’s distribution head Ghanshyam Singh has submitted some documents. We will verify those documents with the help of the economic offences wing,” said Vaze.

He added, “Executive editors of Republic TV, Niranjan Narayanswamy and Abhishek Kapoor, were questioned. We have asked them to submit the documents which they used to telecast news on October 10 claiming that the documents of Hansa. They have not submitted the document yet.”

Several witnesses are coming forward claiming they were asked to watch Republic TV and were given money. “We have recorded statement of some people. Statements of few witnesses were recorded before a magistrate under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” said a crime branch officer.