Mumbai: Nitin Deokar of Hansa Research Group, the complainant in the fake television rating points (TRP) case, on Thursday told court he had no objection to the Mumbai police's plea to withdraw the case.
Deokar's lawyer Prashant Gurav on Thursday submitted the reply saying, “The first informant (Deokar) has no objection if the application filed by state through public prosecutor under section 321 of Criminal Procedure Code (withdrawing prosecution complaint) is allowed and the proceedings in the matter are withdrawn/ stopped and further if the accused are acquitted or discharged.”
When asked, Gurav refused to comment on the decision. This was filed in response to the notice issued by the Metropolitan Magistrate Court to the complainant on plea of the prosecution.
TRP manipulation case
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The prosecution had on November 28 last year moved a plea to withdraw the case filed in connection with TRP manipulation by news channels. The plea was filed after the state government reviewed the investigation and found several discrepancies.
The Mumbai crime branch had in October 2020, registered a case for manipulation of TRP ratings by some of the television channels, claiming that this was done with the help of employees of Hansa Research Private Limited.
It was claimed that some of the TV channels which included ARG Outlier Media [which owns Republic TV], a local Marathi channel and also other national channels were involved in manipulation of the TRP to gain more revenue through advertisements.
The Mumbai police had named a total 22 persons as the accused in the chargesheet filed in November 2020, which also included Arnab Goswami.
ED gave clean chit to Arnab Goswami and his channel after probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which probed the money laundering by the channels, had submitted its first complaint in September 2022 and gave clean chit to Goswami and Republic channel.
In its complaint, the federal agency had stated that when it re-examined the households and relationship managers to check the money laundering, they denied having received payments to watch Republic channel.
ED also raised questions on the forensic audit report which was commissioned by the Mumbai police and said the report of the auditor was superficial. Followed by ED's probe, the state government had decided to review the case.
