MUMBAI: After months of media furore, high profile arrests, mudslinging and courtroom drama, we have come back full circle in the TRP manipulation case. Today, the Bombay high court raised a pertinent question – what prompted the Mumbai police to hold a press conference last year over the alleged TV ratings scam.
The court was hearing a petition filed by ARG Outlier Media (holding company for Republic TV channels) challenging the criminal proceedings initiated against its channel and employees in the controversial matter. ARG Outlier is seeking, among other reliefs, that the Mumbai police's probe into the TRP scam be transferred to the CBI or any other independent agency.
"Does the police have an obligation to interact with the press? Why did the commissioner (of police) have to speak to the press?" a bench of justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale asked.
The bench was responding to the arguments made by the ARG Outlier Media's counsel, senior advocate Ashok Mundargi.
Mundargi told the high court that the police had malafide intentions behind holding the press conference in October last year.
He also said there was no evidence against Republic TV and its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, but the police were trying to name them as accused "by hook or by crook".
"The police were feeding the press that a particular scam took place. This points out that there was not sufficient material to say whatever was being said," Mundargi argued.
He also said the police had arrested some employees of ARG Outlier Media and named them as accused persons in their remand applications.
However, in the charge sheet, the police had named the channel and ARG Outlier Media's employees merely as suspects, he pointed out.
Mundargi also highlighted that Sachin Waze, who had been handling the probe into the TRP manipulation case, and is now suspended over his alleged involvement in another case, was a controversial officer.
The high court will continue hearing the final arguments in the case on Wednesday. The Maharashtra government's statement made earlier this month to refrain from taking any coercive action against Goswami and the ARG Outlier Media's employees will remain in force till then.
The ARG Outlier Media and Goswami approached the Bombay high court last year filing a bunch of petitions seeking several reliefs in the TRP scam.
They alleged that the whole case was malafide and they had been targeted for Republic TV's reportage in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and the Palghar lynching case last year.
The Mumbai police in January this year filed two affidavits in the TRP case through commissioner Param Bir Singh and ACP Shashank Sandbhor of the crime branch, saying they had not targeted Republic TV or its employees.
The police said their probe into the case was not a result of any political vendetta and there was evidence to show that Goswami had connived with senior officials of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to rig the TRP of Republic TV.
Meanwhile, in the Lok Sabha today, minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy stated that the government has no information on the purported WhatsApp chats between Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta related to confidential and sensitive information, which surfaced during the investigation into the TRP scam by the Mumbai police. The response was in regards to at least six members of Parliament seeking details on the leak.
Since the chats containing details of the Balakot airstrike came to light, opposition leaders have taken aim at the NDA-led government saying that the leak of sensitive information was a breach of the country’s security. The Congress has sought a joint parliamentary committee probe into what it called a breach of national security.
