MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police on Tuesday submitted charge sheet in the Television Rating point (TRP) manipulation scam case before the 37th Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate court on Tuesday.
Mumbai Police filing a chargesheet within the stipulated period of 60 days assumes significance in the wake of Enforcement Directorate conducting a parallel probe into the
money laundering angle
under the provision of
Prevention of Money laundering Act
.
Mumbai police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) have so far arrested 12 persons including Hansa employees and the Republic channel distribution head Ghanshyam Singh. The case was registered on October 6 after
Broadcast Audience Research Council
(BARC) lodged a complaint that certain television channels were rigging the TRP through illegal means.
The Broadcast Audience Research h Council( BARC) company has installed 2000 barometers in Mumbai to monitor TRPs which is strictly confidential.
BARC which releases the weekly rating points for TV channels in India, had given the confidential contract to a company called Hansa Research which filed the complaint against some former employees who misused the data on households where the TRP monitoring systems are installed. TRP is important as the advertising revenue of channels depends on it.
The crime branch had registered an offence and arrested
Vishal Bhandari, employee of Hansa Research and his interrogations led police to arrest Bompelli Mistry, proprietor of Fakht Marathi, Narayan Sharma proprietor of Box Cinema. During investigations it transpired that Shetty and Sharma had allegedly used the services of Bomepalli and Vishal to rig the TRP of their channels.
Police later arrested Vinay Tripathi who used to pay to Vishal and other households. Parambir Singh during his press conference on October 8 claimed that they have come across evidence of involvement of Republic Channel and few other channel.
Later police had recorded statements of CEO of Republic channel
Vikas Khandchandani
, COO Priya Mukerhjee, Executive Editor
Niranjan Narayanswamy
in the investigations and Republic has been denying all these allegations.
S Ahmed Ali, Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India, Mumba...
Read MoreS Ahmed Ali, Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, covers crime and related isues but sometimes he also takes up offbeat subjects. His interests: automobiles particularly bikes, and gymming.
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