A day after the Mumbai Police claimed it has busted a Television Rating Points (TRP) racket involving three TV news channels (Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema), a local court in Mumbai sent four people accused in the ‘TRP scam’ to police custody till October 13. They include owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema. Meanwhile, CFO of Republic TV has been summoned for questioning tomorrow.
On Thursday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh addressed a press conferencing where he said the Mumbai Police has evidence that the three channels were involved in a TRP fraud and cheated advertisers.
During the press conference, Singh said owners and top management of Republic TV would be called for the interrogation in connection with the TRP scam, while owners of the two other channels have already been arrested.
TRP is a tool to judge which TV programmes are viewed the most, and also indicates the viewers’ choice and popularity of a particular channel.
Manipulated TRP ratings result in miscalculated targeted audience for the advertisers, which results in losses of hundreds of crores of rupees because of such manipulations and fake statistics of TRPs.
Here are the top 10 developments in the TRP scam:
1) A Mumbai court today sent four people accused in the TRP scam to police custody till October 13. These include Narayan Sharma (owner of Box Cinema) and Shirish Shetty (owner of Fakt Marathi). The other two accused are Vishal Bhandari and Bompalli Rao. They are former employees of Hansa agency that was involved in the process to determine TRPs. They have all been arrested for their alleged role in manipulating TRP ratings of the three news channels, which in turn boosted their revenues by cheating advertisers.
2) The Mumbai Police also issued summons to CFO of Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV. The CFO has been asked to present himself before the police for questioning tomorrow. Besides the Republic TV CFO, the Mumbai Police has also asked accountants and some other officials of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema to appear before it tomorrow. Officials from agencies handling advertisements for the three channels have also been summoned.
3) Sources in the Mumbai Police have told India Today TV that they have accessed evidence against Republic TV in the diary of Vishal Bhandari, one of the arrested accused. The sources said entries of several households were found in Bhandari’s dairy. Bhandari has been arrested after he reportedly revealed that he “induced household members where BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) barometers are installed to watch Republic TV for a specific time every day for monetary consideration to increase the channel’s viewership which resulted into TRP manipulation”.
4) Police sources said when they interrogated these households, they accepted that Vishal Bhandari had been paying them money on a monthly basis to watch Republic TV. The Mumbai Police has also recovered messages exchanged between these households regarding payments, sources said.
5) Meanwhile, the police said they have also unearthed a money trail linked to the TRP scam. According to the remand copy filed by the Mumbai Police, Narayan Sharma (owner of Box Cinema) and Shirish Shetty (Fakt Marathi owner) paid Bompalli Rao Mistry to rig the TRP ratings.
6) Bompalli Rao used to pay Vishal Bhandari Rs 20,000 per week and in return, he would ask people to watch Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi. Bhandari used to go to every house (where BARC barometers were installed) and give them Rs 400-Rs 500 and keep the rest, police said.
7) Police alleged that Bompalli Rao was also in touch with a person named Rocky. Rocky was being paid to ensure that houses where BARC barometers are placed watched Republic TV in exchange of money.
8) In the remand copy, the Mumbai Police said the TRP scam is spread across the country.
9) On Thursday, soon after Republic TV’s name surfaced in the TRP scam, its owner and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami rubbished the charges and said the Mumbai Police should be prepared to meet him in court. He also alleged that he was being attacked due to his unfavourable reporting against the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai Police.
Arnab Goswami also dragged India Today in this fight and said the FIR filed by Hansa Research mentioned India Today TV’s name.
10) The Mumbai Police, however, has clarified that it has not found any evidence against India Today in the TRP scam. The joint commissioner of police Milind Bharambe said India Today was named in the FIR but neither the accused nor the witnesses corroborated the claim.
“In the FIR, the name of India Today is mentioned. However, it is not substantiated by any of the accused or the witnesses. On the contrary, the accused and witnesses are specifically mentioning the names of Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema. Thorough investigations are on,” the joint commissioner said.
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