Mumbai police on Sunday, arrested Vikas Khanchandani, Republic TV CEO, in connection with the fake tv rating scam. By far 12 arrests have been made in the case.
The arrest of Vikas Khanchandani came less than a week after the apex court had rejected an appeal from ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, which owns the Republic Media network, seeking protection for the group and its employees.
"This petition is ambitious. You want Maharashtra police not to arrest any employee and transfer the cases to CBI. You better withdraw this," Justice DY Chandrachud had told the Group, which had alleged the Maharashtra Police of harassing the media company, its employees and its Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.
A First Information Report was registered by the Mumbai police on October 6 and investigation was initiated on a complaint filed by Nitin Deokar, an official of Hansa Research.
The report names 140 witnesses, including forensic auditors and members of BARC or Broadcast Audience Research Council, which assesses TRPs or Television Rating Points by monitoring select households.
TRP is estimated by recording viewership data at sample households and is important for attracting advertisers for the channel.
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According to the police, Republic TV and a few other channels have been accused of bribing some households to tune into their channels.
Republic TV has denied all the allegations.