MUMBAI:The long arm of the law is closing in.  In yet another turn of events in the alleged TRP manipulation case, the custody seeking hungry  Mumbai police has arrested BARC India’s former CEO  and media veteran Partho Dasgupta. He was picked up from Rajgad police station jurisdiction in Pune rural and is being brought to the Mumbai crime branch.

Dasgupta will be produced before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court (ACMM) on Friday.

For the uninitiated, this is the fifteenth arrest in the TRP scam, coming close on the heels of former BARC COO Romil Ramgarhia and Republic Media Network CEO Vikas Khanchandani being taken in police custody. Both of them have been released from jail on bail.

The Mumbai police has claimed to have found WhatsApp chats between Ramgarhia and Khanchandani that indicates manipulation in viewership data. No proof of this has been provided to the media as at the time of writing. 

The law enforcer  began an investigation into the alleged scam after ratings agency BARC India filed a complaint through Hansa Research Agency about the rigging of TRP by some TV channels. Republic promoter Arnab Goswami - who too was arrested and incarcerated for a few days -  has called the entire investigation  TRP as political vendatta by the Maharashtra government led by Udhav Thackeray.