Court seeks BARC's response over Mumbai Police plea to close fake TRP case

A Mumbai court on Thursday issued notice to the complainant seeking its response to the plea filed by police to withdraw the fake TRP case in which senior television journalist Arnab Goswami has been named as an accused.

The case was registered after the Broadcast Audience Research Council lodged a complaint alleging certain TV channels were rigging TRPs (television rating points connected to viewership) through illegal means.

Metropolitan magistrate (Esplanade Court) L S Padhen will hear the complainant before passing an order. The case will be heard next on January 18.

Last month, the Mumbai Crime Branch moved a plea in court seeking to withdraw the fake TRP case.

The case came to light in October 2020 when ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.

Mumbai police, in its supplementary chargesheet, had named Goswami as an accused in the case. It alleged that he, in connivance with co-accused and former CEO of BARC Partho Dasgupta, illegally tampered with TRPs.

The chargesheet cited Goswami's acceptance of his WhatsApp chat with Dasgupta as crucial evidence to indict him in the case.

On Tuesday, the prosecution filed an application before a magistrate court to withdraw the case.

The plea was moved under section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which enables the public prosecutor or assistant public prosecutor to withdraw from the prosecution of any person either generally or in respect of any one or more of the offences for which he is tried.

The Crime Branch had arrested 12 persons, including Republic TV's distribution head and owners of two other channels, in connection with the case. The accused are currently out on bail.

Based on the Mumbai police's FIR, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also filed a money laundering complaint in the alleged TRP rigging scam.

However, ED, in its chargesheet filed in September last year, claimed no evidence was found against Republic TV in the alleged scam.

The Mumbai police's probe in this respect was "at variance" with its probe, the central agency had said in the charge sheet.

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