A magistrate court has rejected the bail plea of former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta in the TRP scam case.
Dasgupta had made a bail application before the magistrate court on December 30 after the court had remanded him in judicial custody after his police custody had ended.
In his bail application he had stated that the offences of cheating and criminal breach of trust that have been applied by the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) against him are not applicable. His advocate had argued that for the offence of cheating there must be wrongful loss and wrongful gain, which are not shown in the case of the complainant Hansa Research Foundation.
The bail application had also stated that for the offence of criminal breach of trust to be attracted, there needs to be some entrustment, which is also not the case. It had been pointed out too, that Dasgupta had resigned from the position of CEO in November 2019. He was not the CEO during the alleged period of the crime, it said.
Dasgupta was arrested on December 24. The police allege that he had used his position in BARC to internally manipulate the TRP of ARG Outliers two channels - Republic TV and Republic Bharat to show them as leading in their respective genres. He received kickbacks for the irregularities, it claims.
Dasgupta’s advocate has said Dasgupta will be challenging the magistrate court’s order soon before the sessions court.
