The Mumbai Police submitted before a court on Monday that Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami had allegedly bribed television rating...
The Mumbai Police submitted before a court on Monday that Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami had allegedly bribed television rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council’s former Chief Executive Officer Partho Dasgupta with “lakhs of rupees” to ramp up his channel’s viewership, The Indian Express reported.
This is the first time the city police have named Goswami for his involvement in the alleged Television Rating Points manipulation scam. Dasgupta, on the other hand, was arrested in connection with the case on December 24, and was last week remanded to judicial custody till December 28.
“When Dasgupta was the Broadcast Audience Research Council, or BARC, CEO, Arnab Goswami and other accused in the case conspired to illegally increase the TRPs of Republic Bharat Hindi news channel and Republic TV English news channel,” the police told the metropolitan magistrate’s court. “In order to do that, Goswami on several occasions paid Dasgupta lakhs of rupees, it has been established in the investigation.”
The report stated that Goswami allegedly paid Dasgupta and another senior BARC official, former Chief Operating Officer Romil Ramgarhia, to manipulate the ratings of Republic TV’s English and Hindi channels, according to NDTV. Ramgarhia is accused of “providing secret and confidential information to certain channels”, and was arrested on December 17.
The police alleged that Dasgupta...
