Synopsis: Republic TV has requested temporary safeguards from any coercive action against them and the transfer of the Mumbai Police investigation proceedings.
The Republic TV has challenged the summons issued to the network, before the Supreme Court, in relation to the TRP scam alleged to have been uncovered by the Mumbai Police.
The petition filed at the Apex Court challenges the summons issued on 9 October to the CFO of the Republic Media Network in respect of the FIR CR No. 143 of 2020.
Sundaram, the CFO, asked the Mumbai Police to stop investigating the network and its workers until the matter was heard in the Supreme Court. It is also told that an early hearing request has been made.
The Mumbai Police arrested the owners of the channel Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema on October 8 after their Detection Crime Branch split a TRP racket involving an amount of over Rs. 100 crore that the police suspect.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said that by October 9, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Borivali, had granted custody to the Mumbai Police of the owners of the Marathi Channel.
He added that, under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code, the owners were charged.
Singh informed the media that the amount received for manipulating TRP ratings is currently being investigated by the Mumbai Police.
The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), an agency within the Union Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, uses barometers to calculate TRPs.
A company called Hansa Research Group conducted this installation of barometers. The data on the position of the barometer, except for the BARC, was confidential and known to Hansa.
The Crime Branch found that the ‘sampling metering systems’ were abused by some Hansa workers by paying individuals to watch specific TV channels. The Crime Branch arrested one Vishal Ved Bhandari who revealed that by offering money to panel homes, he used to increase the TRP of media channels.
These homeowners admitted during their interrogation that they had earned money to keep their TV sets turned on to a certain channel, even though they did not want to watch it.
A public statement has since been released by Republic TV alleging that the channel has not yet been included in the FIR and that only India Today has been named. It has thus questioned why it is being dragged into the case.