The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) filed a money laundering complaint in the alleged TRP manipulation scam which is being investigated by Mumbai police, official sources said on Friday.
They said that the central investigative agency has submitted an execution case information report (ECIR) that is equivalent to a police FIR under the provisions of the Money Laundering Prevention Law.
The ED’s complaint was filed after studying a Mumbai police FIR that was registered in October and that had named the Republic television channel, two Marathi channels and a few other people.
Republic TV and other defendants have denied wrongdoing and tampering with the TRP (Television Rating Points) system.
Officials of the news channels and others appointed in the FIR police, in addition to two former employees of the Hansa investigation agency arrested by the Mumbai police in this case, will soon be summoned by the Emergency Department to question them and record their statements. they said.
The ED will investigate whether fake TRPs were generated and whether the money earned through this was used to generate illegal funds and create illegitimate assets, they said.
TRP is a tool for judging which TV shows are watched the most and also indicates the choice and popularity of viewers for a particular channel.
It is calculated on the basis of the television channel’s audience in a confidential set of households and measuring barometers are installed in these places.
The alleged scam came to light when the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) rating agency filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain television channels were tampering with TRP’s numbers.
Mumbai police had alleged that some channels were paying bribes to fraudulently boost TRP in order to increase advertising revenue.
It was alleged that some families in whose homes meters were installed to collect audience data were being bribed to tune in to a particular channel.
On October 8, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said that many people in whose homes these barometers were installed accepted that they were getting a monetary benefit from keeping their televisions on even when they weren’t watching them.
“We suspect that if this was happening in Mumbai, it could also be happening in other parts of the country,” Singh had said.
The CBI, last month, had also registered an FIR on the alleged manipulation of TRP based on a referral from the Uttar Pradesh police.
Sources The ED may also examine this case by filing a new case or by including it in this ECIR filed under the PMLA.
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