Synopsis: On Sunday morning, in the alleged TRP scam case being investigated by the Mumbai Police in which Republic TV was involved, Khanchandani was arrested by the Mumbai Police.
SB Bhajipale, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Esplanade, Mumbai, sent Vikas Khanchandani, Group Chief Executive Officer of ARG Outlier Media Private Limited (ARG), who owns and operates the Republic TV network, to police custody until December 15.
On Sunday morning, in the alleged TRP scam case being investigated by the Mumbai Police in which Republic TV was involved, Khanchandani was arrested by the Mumbai Police.
The Police submitted to the court that the Republic network allegedly performed transactions amounting to Rs. 15 lakhs a month in order to raise their Television Rating Points (TRP) in order to ensure that more viewers watch their channels, Republic TV (English) and Republic Bharat (Hindi).
Police have claimed to found the alleged amount in the possession of Abhishek Kolawade, accused of taking money from the channel for carrying out activities aimed at increasing the viewership and therefore the channel’s TRPs.
After interrogating Ghanshyam Singh, Assistant Vice President of ARG Outlier, the police concluded that Singh was allegedly directed by Priya Mukherjee, Chief Operating Officer of the channel, who was in turn directed by Khanchandani, to carry out illegal activities to increase TRPs for their channel.
The Republic channels allegedly violated the regulations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India by paying cable operators and multi-system operators to use the ‘dual/ promotional local channel number’ to broadcast their news channels on more than one single channel.
Senior advocate Aabad Ponda, who appeared for Khanchandani, opposed the remand sought by the Mumbai Police by claiming that the name or role of Khanchandani was never stated in the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police.
Ponda said that Khanchandani was only involved in this scam because there was a dispute between Arnab Goswami and the government of Maharashtra that began after Goswami raised his voice against the lynching of the Palghar mob and the gathering of Bandra migrant workers.
He argued that because he works for the Republic TV network, Khanchandani was being targeted.
It was also pointed out that on Sunday, the day before his anticipatory bail application was listed for hearing before the Mumbai Sessions Court, Khanchandani was intentionally arrested so as to defeat his anticipatory bail application.