Who is BARC employee Premnath, accused in the fresh Kerala TRP scam case?

New Delhi: BARC India employee Premnath, who was allegedly paid crores by a Kerala-based Malayalam news channel to boost its TRPs, is one of the founding members of the rating agency.

Sources in the industry told BestMediaInfo that Premnath was holding the position of Vice-President until recently.

According to Twentyfour News, the complainant and whistleblower in the alleged fresh TRP scam case, Premnath allegedly supplied sensitive information, including PIN-code-level details of areas where BARC meters are installed.

Twentyfour News reported that the channel owner used USDT cryptocurrency routed to a Trust Wallet account held by Premnath.

The complaint states that the funds were then further distributed to multiple wallets. 

Premnath joined BARC India in June 2015 as a senior manager, about two months after the agency started releasing data.

Prior to BARC India, he worked as a data analyst for a decade at the Times Group.

Hailing from Tamil Nadu’s Vellore, Premnath was one of many BARC employees in Mumbai with prior assignments at the Times Group.

Notable names with Times Group stints who later became associated with BARC India included Arnab Goswami (2006 to 2016) and Partho Dasgupta (April 2004 to November 2006), both of whom went to jail in an alleged TRP scam and were later given a clean chit by the Enforcement Directorate.

The Mumbai Police also withdrew its case against them last year.

However, industry insiders are of the view that Twentyfour News has reported certain transactions in this case, making it a fit case for the Enforcement Directorate to probe money laundering.

A response from BARC India to an email sent by BestMediaInfo.com is still awaited.