Mumbai Police’s crime branch on Tuesday, 21 October, arrested two former employees of Hansa Research Group Private Limited in connection with the TRP scam.
Those arrested have been identified as Ramji Dudhnath Verma and Dinesh Pannalal Vishwakarma, reported the Hindustan Times.
Till now, a total of eight people have been arrested in relation to TRP scam, reported the Mumbai Mirror.
Verma worked with the research group for three years and was arrested from Worli, and Vishwakarma was arrested from Mumbai airport.
As per the Hindustan Times report, Vishwakarma has been accused of giving money to Umesh Mishra, who the police had arrested previously for paying viewers to watch Republic TV.
Hansa Research Group’s chief executive officer (CEO) Pravin Nijhara was also questioned by the police.
Earlier, the police had arrested Vishal Bhandhari, Vinay Tripathi, Sanjiv Rao, Fakt Marathi TV channel owner Shirish Satish Pattanshetty and Box Cinema’s boss Narayan Nandkishore Sharma, reported the Mumbai Mirror.
The TRP Case
Earlier in October, the Mumbai Police had said that it has busted a "TRP scam", whereby Television Rating Points (TRPs) were being manipulated. In the briefing, the Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh said that ratings by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which measures television ratings in India, have been manipulated.
The police named Republic TV and two other Marathi channels who, it said, were involved in the practice.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times and Mumbai Mirror)
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