MUMBAI: The Bombay high court, hearing the petition by ARG Outlier and Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami seeking quashing of the FIR and chargesheet in the TRP manipulation case, was informed by chief public prosecutor Deepak Thakare on Thursday that as there were no statutory restrictions, investigation would go on as long as needed.

After the state’s assurance to the court that the interim relief against coercive action to Goswami and other employees of ARG Outlier would continue for two weeks, the court posted the hearing for Monday, as reported by the Hindustan Times.

Responding to the Bombay high court’s query on why Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami and ARG Outlier Media were not named as accused in the TRP manipulation case, the state said it was not in a position to answer the question immediately, but it had the right to investigate a case for as long as required.

The division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice Manish Pitale on Wednesday had asked the Mumbai police why Goswami had not been named as an accused in the FIR in the case, and had directed the prosecutor to inform it by the following day if they plan to do so.  

The court, while accepting the state’s submission, said that rather than keeping the petitioners on tenterhooks, the police could call on them as per clause 12 of the charge sheet which mentions chalak and malak (operator and owner) by issuing them notice. Citing the example of another case (Dabholkar and Pansare), the bench said that it was not asking the state to give a time limit for completion of the investigations. However, it wanted to know from the special public prosecutor how much more time they would take to complete the probe.

 Senior counsel Ashok Mundargi for the petitioners drew the attention of the bench to the fact that the alleged crime that the channel was involved in was influencing cable operators to place the channel at the top of the bouquet which they offered to subscribers. The action, Mundargi said, even if constituted an offence, could be dealt with by TRAI. He added that the company and Goswami were willing to cooperate with the investigation provided they were told what their alleged offences were.

Mundargi claimed that the police was being evasive by keeping the investigations open ended, and hence their apprehension of being arrested was not out of place. He also referred to the two chargesheets filed till now in the case and said the claims that the TRP ratings throughout the country were manipulated by rigging a few barometers in Mumbai was not possible.

After hearing the submissions the bench observed, “In a democratic set up, there has to be reasonability and objectiveness. Hence what we want to know when will you complete the investigation…There is a concept of welfare state. The state and the investigating officer should stop at one stage. It cannot continue for years together.”

The fake TRP scam came to light in October when ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers. Hansa is one of BARC’s vendors on engagement with panel homes or people’s meters. TRP, measured by recording viewership data at sample households, is crucial for attracting advertisers. According to the police, certain channels including Republic TV were gaming television ratings and were involved in distorting the system used by BARC to rate TV channels. Republic TV has denied wrongdoing.