TIO
Television anchor Arnab Goswami on Thursday said he will take legal action against Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh who named his Republic TV among three channels for rigging Television Rating Points (TRP).
The Mumbai top cop claimed to have busted a racket that involved private television channels manipulating their TRPs. Republic TV and two other local Mumbai channels have been found guilty of manipulating the crucial data, the police commissioner said.
Threatening criminal defamation, Goswami issued a statement saying, “Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh has made false allegations against Republic TV because we have questioned him in the Sushant Singh Rajput case investigation. Republic TV will file a criminal defamation case against Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh. “
The statement further stated that the probe by Mumbai police is a ‘desperate measure’ because the police commissioner-led investigation in Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death ‘remains under a cloud’.
“There is not a single BARC report that mentions Republic TV. The people of India know the truth. Mr Param Bir Singh’s investigation in the Sushant Singh Rajput case is under a cloud and this is a desperate measure because of Republic TV’s reportage on Palghar, the Sushant Singh Rajput case or any other case. This kind of targeting only strengthens the resolve of everyone at Republic TV to push for the truth even harder.”
“Param Bir Singh stands completely exposed today since BARC has not mentioned Republic In any single complaint. He should issue an official apology and get ready to face us in court,” the statement read.
According to the Mumbai police, its probe found that a 30,000 audience measurement metres were purchased by a private firm, out of which 2,000 were installed in Mumbai.
At a press conference, Mumbai police chief said their probe found that a set of households where these metres were installed were paid money to tune to a particular channel. In one case, Mumbai’s top police officer said, investigators found that a household comprising people who were not literate always had an English news channel switched on.
These particular households were paid about Rs 400-500 every month for viewing an English news channel.
The Mumbai police commissioner has said that Republic TV is next on their radar and officials of the news channels will be summoned soon.
“No one involved will be spared,” the senior police officer said. Singh said that they earlier believed that some news channels carried out propaganda stories to boost their TRP and “now it appears they manipulate audience data too”.
