Among other executives of the channel, the police recorded the statement of the director of operations Hersh Bhandari and questioned the head of distribution Ghanshyam Singh in Daman. Singh, who was in a tourist center, was taken to Nani Daman Police Station and interrogated for seven hours.
Police, who wrote to a bank seeking details of Republic’s account, said they had received the statements. A police team from the Economic Crimes Wing (EOW) was examining the records.
The police also took accused detainees Vishal Bhandari (21), a former employee of Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, who installed the bar meters in homes to measure audience, at his residence to conduct a search. Investigators said they found a diary from Bhandari’s home that contained the names of television channels and households that received payments.
So far, the police have arrested Bhandari, Bomapallirao Mistry (44), owner of Fakht Marathi Shirish Shetty (44) and owner of Box Cinema Narayan Sharma (47). They have claimed that Bhandari would pay Rs 400-500 to some households, where bar meters were installed, to keep specific channels or their televisions on. Mistry is suspected of routing payments.
Investigators have searched the bank account details of the Fakht Marathi channel and Box Cinema. “Sajjan Agarwal, Fakht Marathi’s CFO, is expected to come on Monday. He stays in Indore, ”said an official.
Khanchandani, Bhandari and Singh of Republic TV were recalled on Monday. Shiva Sundaram, Republic TV’s chief financial officer, has informed the police that he will report after October 14. Sundaram was summoned to appear on Saturday but did not appear.
Priya Mukherjee, Republic TV’s chief operating officer, was also summoned but was unable to attend. “Mukherjee hinted to us on Sunday morning that he was in Bangalore and could not come due to the pandemic,” the police officer added.
In a statement Sunday night, Republic TV said its CEO, COO and a senior member of the distribution team were questioned for 20 hours.
According to the statement, the channel was “surprised to learn” that while questioning its CEO, the police made “multiple attempts” to find out how the channel managed to access Hansa’s complaint that “it made multiple mentions of a rival channel without a single reference from Republic TV, Republic Bharat or any affiliate of Republic Media Network “.
The channel said the complaint that forms the basis of the FIR lacked any mention of Republic.
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