TRP fraud probe: Mumbai crime branch makes fifth arrest

The Mumbai crime branch investigating the manipulation of television rating points (TRPs) by three channels on Monday arrested Vinay Tripathi, a former employee

The Mumbai crime branch investigating the manipulation of television rating points (TRPs) by three channels on Monday arrested Vinay Tripathi, a former employee of Hansa Research Group, from Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh. Tripathi is the fifth person to be arrested in the case. He will be produced in the local court at Mirzapur, which will take his transit remand and bring him to Mumbai on Tuesday evening.

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“Tripathi was a relationship manager in Hansa and left two years ago. He was in touch with Bhandari and used to pay money to Bhandari to distribute in households where barometers were installed. He is part of the TRP fraud and was in contact with some owners of channels or their employees,” said assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze.

Earlier, the crime branch arrested four accused – Vishal Bhandari, 20, former employee of Hansa; Bompalli Rao alias Sanjiv Rao, 44 (on October 6); Shirish Shetty, owner of Fakt Maratha; and Narayan Sharma of Box Cinema (on October 9). They have been remanded in police custody till October 13.

The crime branch also froze bank accounts of Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema and their owners on Monday. They also seized Rao’s bank account, said Nandkumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (crime).

The crime branch also issued a tender looking for firms to do a forensic audit. “A tender has been issued today for forensic audit because the transaction of TV channels run into a few hundred crores, so a forensic audit of all bank accounts related to the channels is necessary in the case,” said Thakur.

Meanwhile, the crime branch on Monday recorded the statement of Praveen Nijhara, CEO of Hansa Research Private Limited, and deputy manager Nitin Deokar. “We have asked them to submit some documents to the crime branch for inquiry,” said Vaze. Vaze added CEO of Republic TV Vikas Khanchandani and the news channel’s distribution head Ghanshyam Singh were called at 5.30pm. “They have informed they are on their way,” said Vaze.

Meanwhile, chief financial officer of Republic TV Shiva Sundaram informed the crime branch he would be coming to Mumbai on Tuesday evening, and join the investigation later in the evening on Tuesday. “He could not come because three members of his family were Covid positive. He has informed us that he is ready to cooperate in the investigation,” said Vaze.