New Delhi: The Mumbai Police has named Republic TV editor in chief Arnab Goswami as an accused in the alleged television rating points (TRP) rigging scam in a supplementary chargesheet filed on Tuesday.
The chargesheet was submitted before a magistrate’s court by the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), which is probing the case.
“Among others, Goswami and ARG Outlier [the company which owns Republic TV] have been named as accused in the chargesheet,” a lawyer for Goswami told news agency PTI.
According to LiveLaw, the others from ARG Outlier Media who have been named are COO Priya Mukherjee, Shivendu Mulelkar and Shiva Sundaram in the 1800-page second supplementary chargesheet.
The alleged fake TRP scam came to light in October last year, when the rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through its Hansa Research Group (HRG), alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.
Apart from Republic TV, the other channels which have been accused of manipulation are Box Cinema, and Fakt Marathi. The channels are said to have manipulated TRPs by allegedly bribing Partho Dasgupta, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of BARC.
The Mumbai Police has made 13 arrests in the case, including Dasgupta and the former COO of BARC.
This article first appeared on The Wire