In its ongoing probe in a Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation racket, the Mumbai Police has accessed proof against Republic TV in the diary of one of the accused.
As per sources in Mumbai Police, entries of several households were found in the diary of accused Vishal Ved Bhandari.
The Mumbai Police had on Friday arrested Vishal Ved Bhandari after he, as per a report, “revealed that he induced household members where BARC barometers are installed to watch Republic TV for a specific time every day for monetary consideration to increase the viewership of the said channel which resulted into TRP manipulation..”
When these households were interrogated by the Mumbai Police, they said that the accused Vishal had been paying them money on a monthly basis to watch Republic TV, sources said. The Mumbai Police has also recovered messages exchanged between these households regarding payments, sources said.
Mumbai Police officials said a sudden spike in the watch time of Republic TV has been noted by the agencies in the households that were being paid by accused Vishal.
The ratings of Republic Media’s Republic Bharat had shot up exponentially raising suspicions of a foul play. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the body that gives rating points to TV channels in India, suspected Republic TV of manipulating the system.
Hansa Research, the company that installed these rating boxes called barometers on behalf of BARC, filed a case with the Mumbai Police saying some of Hansa Research’s former employees had leaked or sold the data of the households where these barometers were installed.
The data about these households are closely guarded and supposed to be top secret. Following this, the Mumbai Police on Thursday claimed that its Crime Branch had busted a TRP manipulation racket as it named three channels, including Republic TV.
While owners of two channels were arrested, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said news anchor Arnab Goswami, the promoter of Republic TV, will soon be questioned in the case of TRP fraud.❐
