In a yet another development in the TRP scam case, the Twitter on Friday exploded with 500 leaked messages between Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami and former chief executive officer of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta.
The chats were shared by Twitterati across the social networking platform. The Editor-in Chief of Republic TV is allegedly seen discussing aspects pertaining to TRP with Partho Dasgupta. Goswami’s alleged chats leaked on social media a day after the Bombay High Court adjourned the hearing in the TRP scam case until January 29.
The Mumbai Police’s crime branch has been digging into the details of this case since October 2019. In December, the Mumbai Police arrested Partho Dasgupta who was allegedly found to be guilty of manipulating the TRP of certain TV channels. The police accused Goswami of conniving with Dasgupta and former BARC COO Romil Ramgarhia. Of the series of charges against the face of Republic TV, the police have also alleged that the former used to make payments to Dasgupta in lakhs.
The remand note produced by the Mumbai police read, “Dasgupta, while serving as CEO of BARC, got involved in the conspiracy along with Arnab Goswami and others for manipulation of TRP. He misused his official position and manipulated TRP of specific news channels broadcast by ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd such as Republic Bharat Hindi and Republic TV English,” Mumbai police had alleged in its note to the HC.
Twitter exploded with screenshots of chats where Goswami is allegedly seen texting Dasgupta as he asks. “Can you give me 3 points why TRAI action is working against As interest?” While the intention of this message and more such excerpts are yet to be probed, netizens slammed and trolled Goswami, while many others pointed that he was abusing power to gain name and money for his channel.
Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, meanwhile, tweeted, “These are a few snapshots of the damning leaked WhatsApp chats between BARC CEO & #ArnabGoswami. They show many conspiracies & unprecedented access to power in this govt; gross abuse of his media & his position as power broker. In any Rule of law country, he would be in jail for long.”
The Centre appointed panel in the TRP scam case has probed and submitted its report to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B). The scam is likely to involve more prominent people as Dasgupta was the fifteenth person arrested in this case. Union minister Prakash Javadekar in the meantime earlier this week said that the panel will study the report. After the panel has studied the TRP of TV channels for manipulation, the Bombay High Court may also refer to the findings in order to announce a verdict of Goswami’s involvement in the TRP scam.
Meanwhile, Republic TV is one among the three channels that are under scrutiny of the I&B Ministry for their involvement in manipulation of TRP. The case was lodged last month after an official of Hansa Research – Nitin Deokar — had alleged that the system in place to evaluate the TRP is rigged by Republic TV. Many charges have been filed against the channel and Goswami for tweaking the ratings to gain high advertising rates and good TRP. The probe is underway, while Republic TV and Goswami still deny the allegations.
