The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the alleged tampering with the Television Rating Points (TRP) on Tuesday after registering an FIR. The central agency took over the investigation from the Lucknow police on the recommendation of the Uttar Pradesh government.
A case was registered at the Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow concerning the complaint of a person named Kamal Sharma, who was transferred to the CBI.
The FIR has registered against unidentified persons. The charges include tampering with TRPs with counterfeit media.
The alleged scam was brought to light by the Mumbai police earlier this month, who registered one case. Republic TV is one of the four channels investigated.
So far, police have arrested six people in connection with the scam, which allegedly involves inducing households that make up the sample set whose television viewing is monitored to ensure certain channels get higher ratings.
Ratings are a key influencing factor in advertisers’ preferences when placing ads.
ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, which owns Republic TV, and its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami moved the Bombay high court last week to quash the FIR brought by Mumbai police against the channel in the case.
The channel filed the petition in the high court on October 16, a day after the Supreme Court refused to hear a guilty plea from one of its senior officials against the subpoena issued by the Mumbai police.
The Mumbai Crime Department had previously registered an FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for fraud, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy against Republic TV and its senior officials, and also against two other local regional channels.
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