Hansa Research, on Tuesday, said it has had no business dealings with Republic TV and no payment was made to the channel or received from it. It added that, in a statement reported in the media, a police officer investigating the TRP scam had alleged that Hansa Research had made a payment of Rs 32 lakh to Republic TV, which is incorrect.
Shekar Swamy, group CEO, Hansa Research, said, “Our group company Hansa Vision India Private Limited is in the advertising business. It purchases advertising time and space in various TV channels, newspapers, radio channels, digital platforms and other media regularly for its clients. This is normal, routine business. The last time Hansa Vision purchased advertising time in Republic TV was two years ago for the period from September, 2017, to October, 2018, for a value of Rs 108 lakh. Mumbai Police is perhaps incorrectly linking this with the current TRP-related investigation.”
“In the past two years, as part of its business, Hansa Vision purchased TV advertising time from 55 TV channels for a total value of Rs 13.42 crore on behalf of its clients. In 2019 and 2020, Hansa Vision has not bought any advertising time from Republic TV,” Hansa Research added.
Swamy added, “Hansa Research and the people working for this company have nothing to do with the advertising activities of the group company Hansa Vision.”
Meanwhile, Republic Media Network said that ‘attempts have now been made to spread a false narrative that Hansa Research Group Private Limited (Hansa Research) paid money to the Republic Media Network’. It said, "The CFO of Republic Media Network has been falsely cited to make scurrilous, unverified and malafide assertions. It is categorically clarified that Hansa Research has never done any business with Republic.”
“The payment made by Hansa Vision to Republic is in lieu of the on-air advertising done for the period of October 2017 to October 2018. Advertising contracts and payments thereby are a norm in the broadcast news industry and not an illegality,” it added.
Stating that Mumbai Police should either deny or confirm the story officially, Republic alleged, “It appears that Mumbai Police, which doesn’t understand the difference between the media agency Hansa Vision and the company Hansa Research, in its agenda to continue their vendetta campaign against Republic have resorted to plant fake stories bereft of fact, logic and substance.”
In an official statement, Mumbai Police said, “During the course of investigation, it has been revealed that there has been a money trail of transactions between a Hansa Group company and ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, which is the company operating Republic TV channels. These transactions as well as such connectivity with the suspect channels was not revealed to the SIT by any of the witnesses from any of the Hansa Group companies. As a matter of policy, the SIT is committed towards a fair investigation in this regard.”
