By IT Correspondent
Mumbai, October 10:
Mumbai joint commissioner of police Milind Bharambe on Friday said that although “India Today TV” was named in the FIR, in the TRP manipulation racket busted on Thursday, neither the accused nor the witnesses corroborated the claim.
On the contrary, the accused and witnesses specifically mentioned the names of “Republic TV”, “Fakt Marathi” and “Box Cinema” and thorough investigations are going on.”
Reacting to police action, “Republic TV”s Arnab Goswami hit back at the Mumbai Police for implicating him in the TRP Scam. In fact Goswami had tried to drag “India Today” in this fight against Mumbai Police saying that the FIR filed by “Hansa Research Private Limited”, an agency hired by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) had mentioned “India Today” TV’s name, as one of the manipulator.
India Today TV sources said although, ITTV was mentioned in the FIR, the allegations were not corroborated by the accused and the witnesses, who instead identified “Republic TV” as one of the three channels that paid them to watch their channels. The questioning of the accused did unravel a racket to manipulate TV ratings where Mumbai Police’s Criminal Intelligence unit found three channels involved in the racket.
To inflate the TRP, households are paid money to watch programs/news bulletins of a particular channel. They have to keep their TV sets on, when the programs/bulletins are being telecast. The fraudsters provide barometers to assess the viewership, based on which the channel can claim advertisements. “Hansa Research Private Limited” came to know that some of its ex-employees were involved in this racket.
Goswami and the Mumbai Police Commissioner have been in a running feud after a case was registered against “Republic TV” for launching personal attacks against some politicians of the ruling front. In the Sushant Singh Rajput case, the Maharashtra government accused Goswami of broadcasting fake news and propaganda and publicising unverified information and giving space to YouTube conspiracy theorists.
In the meanwhile, “ India Today” has admitted that it was fined by ratings agency
BARC, an official agency under the Union Information Ministry and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. “BARC has fined “India Today” without presenting any concrete evidence or convening a proper judicial committee. The issue had been under contention with them, but since they have leaked the confidential hearings, the “India Today” Group will consider appropriate legal recourse to get justice”, “India Today” said in a statement.
