Mumbai police tighten screws in bribes-for-ratings scandal, where channels allegedly paid agencies and viewers to boost TRPs
Accused Vishal Bhandari; accused Sanju Rao
The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Crime Branch investigating the TRP (Television Rating Points)scam has summoned chief financial officer (CFO) of Republic TV Shiva Subramaniam Sundaram for questioning. The police will also conduct a forensic audit of the bank accounts of Republic TV, Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi and record some statements before the magistrate under section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of the CrPC.
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Meanwhile, facing backlash for not naming India Today during the press conference on Thursday despite their name being mentioned in the FIR copy, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said that they questioned the accused and investigated the matter but didn't find any evidence against India Today.
Shirish Shetty, owner of Fakt Marathi; Narayan Shetty, owner of Box Cinema
Complainant Nitin Deokar, deputy general manager of Hansa Research Private Limited had mentioned that Indian Today would pay money to households to watch their channel and he had also stated that during their internal probe they found that accused Vishal Bhandari was approached by someone called Vinay, who paid him some money on behalf of India Today.
'It was Hansa's inquiry'
However, the Mumbai police clarified that this was Hansa's internal inquiry conducted in June, but they did not find any supportive evidence in their probe. "We didn't find any substantial evidence against India Today Group during our probe," said CP Param Bir Singh.
According to Bhandari's statement, he went to one house and asked the resident to watch India Today. He paid her '400. "When we enquired about it we found that the household had not even subscribed to the India Today channel as it was a paid one," said Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police (Crime).
CP Param Bir Singh at the press meet on Thursday. FILE PIC
Some TV channels had also claimed that BARC in their data named India Today Group. However, the CP clarified that the data they received from BARC have no mention of India Today and it only talks about suspicious activities of Republic TV. The CEO of BARC, Sunil Lulla also met the CP on Thursday in this regard.
'Most named Republic TV'
Meanwhile, based on the details of BARC, the cops visited 10 houses and most of them took the name of Republic TV, Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi. "Majority of them accepted that Bhandari paid them to watch Republic TV," an officer said.
The CIU has also found that around Rs 80 lakh was transferred from Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema owners to Bompalli Rao Mistry alias Sanju Rao under whom Bhandari was working after leaving the Hansa group. Bhandari and Rao had confidential details about the barometers installed in different locations across Mumbai.
According to the Mumbai cops, accused Rao also took money from Republic TV. "Rao has a long history and is known for manipulating TRP of TV channels. He has been approaching many channel owners to provide high ratings so that they can generate good revenue. He has been paid well for it," said an officer.
The advertisers who have been summoned as witnesses have been identified as Sam Balsara, founder, chairman and MD of Madison World and Shishir Sinha, CEO of Lintas.
Confirming the same, Joint Commissioner (Crime), Bharambe said, "The CIU has summoned Shiva Subramaniam Sundaram, CFO of Republic TV and advertisers from Madison and Lintas as witnesses." Even after repeated attempts to contact Republic TV CFO Sundaram, he remained unavailable.
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