[TRP Scam] Conspiracy of Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta led to over Rs 400 crores loss to Times Now channel: Mumbai Police in chargesheet

Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, has been made an accused in the alleged fake Television Rating Points scam (TRP scam) by way of a supplementary chargesheet filed by Mumbai Police in the case.

. Goswami, was added as accused no. 19 in the latest chargesheet filed by the Crime Branch.

As per the chargesheet, the Police during the course of investigation, sent a questionnaire to Goswami.

While answering the questionnaire, Goswami admitted to the WhatsApp conversations exchanged with Partho Dasgupta, former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Chief Executive Officer.

The conversations were part of the supplementary chargesheet filed against Dasgupta who was accused no. 15 in the case.

The chats purportedly pointed out that Dasgupta had been leaking secret information from BARC to Goswami in order to benefit Republic TV channels.

.[TRP Scam] WhatsApp chats were between two close friends, no talk of manipulation: Republic TV to Bombay High Court . The chargesheet stated that during the period Dasgupta was working in BARC, which was from June 2017 to March 2018, the TRP ratings of Times Now news network was illegally manipulated so that it went below the TRP of Republic TV channels.

Due to the same, Times Now channel allegedly suffered a loss of Rs. 431 crores, a Times Now executive informed Mumbai Police in their statement.

The Crime Branch reached a conclusion that Times Now suffered unjust losses due to the "close relations" shared between Dasgupta and Goswami.

. The Mumbai Police stated in the chargesheet that the conspiracy between Dasupta and Goswami to manipulate the TRP of Republic channels led to Republic's "placement" as the channel with the highest TRP.

The Police also claimed to have come across evidence showing that Goswami had paid Dasgupta in return for his assistance in manipulating the TRPs, which was evident from the jewellery and expensive items seized from Dasgupta's residence.

. Republic TV channels were supposedly broadcast through the medium of Dual Local Channel Network (LCN).

It was alleged that since Goswami is the Managing Director of ARG Outlier Pvt. Ltd, it seemed obvious, that he may have agreed to let cable operators and the Multi-system operators broadcast the Republic TV Hindi and English Channels on more than one channel number due to the Dual LCN system.

This, the Police submitted, was against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regulations.

The Crime Branch discovered this from a string of communications addressed from the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) to the TRAI.

It was also suspected that the escalation in the TRP of the channel was only because of the medium of Dual LCN.

. Goswami was allegedly aware of the conversations that took place on various WhatsApp chat groups consisting of employees of Republic TV.

The conversation purportedly pertained to ensuring that the company channels are broadcast through Dual LCN to increase the TRP ratings through illegal means, and Goswami had knowledge of such conversations.

According to the police, the same was evident from the WhatsApp conversations of Priya Mukherjee, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Republic TV.

. Crime Branch also found compelling evidence to prove that Goswami had bribed accused no. 10, owner of Media Advertising and Distribution, to ensure that people, from the homes where barometers were installed watched Republic channels.

They had also found out the money to be paid for watching those channels traveled through the several co-accused in the case.

. The latest chargesheet of Mumbai Police filed on Tuesday contained charges against seven additional accused .

The Crime Branch had filed its first chargesheet in November 2020 which included details of the first twelve accused and a supplementary chargesheet in January 2021 which included charges against 3 more accused.

The Crime Branch initiated the investigation into the alleged TRP scam after it discovered, through certain employees of the Hansa Group, that ‘sampling metering services’ were being manipulated by paying people to watch particular TV channels.

[TRP Scam] Conspiracy of Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta led to over Rs 400 crores loss to Times Now channel: Mumbai Police in chargesheet

Neha Joshi

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