The metropolitan magistrate on Wednesday accepted the prosecution’s plea to withdraw the case filed against television channels for allegedly rigging the television rating points (TRPs) to generate more revenue. The plea was allowed after the complainant, Hansa Research Group, gave a ‘no objection’ to the Mumbai police’s plea to withdraw the case.
Hansa’s lawyer gives 'no objection' for withdrawal
Hansa’s lawyer Prashant Gurav had given a 'no objection' for withdrawal in January. Special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray, meanwhile, contended that nobody came forward for the longest time to say they were aggrieved by alleged rigging.
The case of manipulation of TRPs by certain television channels, allegedly with help from Hansa employees, was registered by Mumbai crime branch in October 2020. It was claimed that a few channels, including ARG Outlier Media (which owns Republic TV), a local Marathi channel and a few other national channels, were involved in TRP manipulation.
Details of TRP Rigging case
The Mumbai police had named 22 persons as the accused and the chargesheet was filed in November 2020, which also included Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which probed the money laundering by the channels, submitted its first complaint in September 2022 and gave clean chit to Goswami and Republic.
After the state government reviewed the investigation and found several discrepancies, the plea to withdraw the case was filed on November 28, 2003.
As per the prosecution, most of the witnesses contended that their statements were recorded by the police under threat and coercion. Besides, it was claimed that BARC – the sole authority for collection of viewership technical data – has not filed any complaint.
The ED had earlier stated that when it re-examined the households and relationship managers to check the money laundering, they denied having received payments to watch certain channels. The ED had also raised questions on the forensic audit report commissioned by the Mumbai police and called it “superficial”. The case was reviewed by the state government after the ED’s probe.
