The Mumbai Crime Branch recently arrested former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Broadcast Audience Research Council in connection (BARC), Romil Ramgaharia, in connection with the manipulation of television rating points (TRP) scam. The accused was arrested after five-hour interrogation on Thursday, December 17, 2020.
As per reports, Romil has also been accused of misusing his authority to provide confidential information to employees of Republic TV channel.
So far Mumbai Crime Branch has arrested 14 people in the TRP scam case and it is said that they are Republic TV employees. Romil's interrogation was held for five hours and ended in the afternoon, post which he was arrested on Thursday and has been remanded police custody till December 19, 2020, by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Mumbai.
Police, after the investigation, revealed that Ramgaharia had been providing confidential information for two years to Republic Media Network's Chief Executive Officer Vikas Khanchandani through WhatsApp, who was also arrested in connection with this scam on Sunday, December 13. However, Khanchandani was granted bail by a court on Wednesday, December 16.
Ramgaharia had joined BARC as COO in July 2014 and resigned in July this year.
Besides him, Amit Dave, owner of Mahamovies, Ghanshyam Singh, Assistant Vice President of Distribution, Republic TV, and Shirish Pattanshetty, co-promoter of Fakt Marathi channel were also arrested and granted bail by Mumbai Court.
Earlier, BARC had filed a complaint through Hansa Research Agency for manipulating TRP by some channels, and investigation revealed that many families were also allegedly bribed to tune into certain news channels to increase their TRP through the day.
On the other hand, the investigation is being carried out to cracking down on cable operators in the state, whereby statements of 24 cable operators have been recorded. Data states that as many as 70 cable operators are on the radar and would be called to the court as witnesses, whenever needed.
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