The Crime Branch of Mumbai Police on Thursday, 24 December, arrested former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta from Pune, as part of their investigation of the fake Television Rating Point Scam. He has been sent to police custody till 28 December.
The Crime Intelligence Unit of Rajgad Police Station, Pune arrested Dasgupta and will produce him in a Mumbai court on Friday, reported PTI.
This is the 15th arrest in the TRP scam probe and comes barely a week after the arrest of BARC farmer COO, Romil Ramgarhia. They had previously arrested Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani on 13 December, who was sent to custody till 15 December, and granted bail on 16 December.
Television Rating Points are measured by recording the viewership data of TV channels or programmes by sample households around the country, which is critical for getting advertisements.
The viewership data was allegedly manipulated by some of these channels through a research agency by making fixed monthly payments to the families to view only certain channels/programmes.
However, Republic TV has denied the charges and accused the Mumbai Police of harassing the channel and its officials as part of a vendetta.
(With inputs from PTI)
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