The fifth accused arrested in the TRP manipulation racket was produced before the court on Wednesday, where he was remanded to police custody till Monday. The accused identified as Vinay Tripathi, 30, was arrested from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh a few days ago. While asking his custody, police said that his mobile phone is yet to be recovered.
The crime branch on Thursday recorded statement of Republic TV's senior executive editor, Abhishek Kapoor. He was earlier summoned on Wednesday, however, his complete statement could not be recorded, and hence he was called again. On Thursday, the Hansa Research Group submitted a few documents as asked by the investigators.
In the Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation case, the Mumbai crime branch has already recorded statements of a couple of office bearers of Republic Media Network along with that of Hansa. Statements of heads of several advertising agencies have also been recorded in the case.
Mumbai police has so far recorded statements of five accused persons including owners of two Marathi channels for allegedly involved in TRP manipulations. According to the police, the households where the sampling meters had been installed were paid on a monthly basis to watch a particular channel.
