Updated: December 16, 2020 8:26:55 pm
Vikas Khanchandani, Director of Republic TV (Source: LinkedIn / Vikas Khanchandani)
A trial court in Mumbai granted bail to Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani, arrested in the TRP fraud case. Khanchandani, who was arrested on Sunday, the metropolitan chief magistrate granted him a 50,000 rupees cash-guaranteed bond at Esplanade in Mumbai.
This came after session judge DE Kothalikar, on December 14, made remarks while listening to the advance bail statement from Republic TV CFO S Sundaram, in which he apprehended his arrest by the Mumbai police.
The session court complained about the haste with which the Mumbai police arrested Khanchandani and expressed its displeasure at the way the police decided to arrest him one day before the hearing on his advance bail request was scheduled. “What was the urgency of arresting him like this the day before, when the request was sub-judice?” the judge had asked special prosecutor Sishir Hirey.
The Mumbai Police Crimes Division arrested Khanchandani in the TRP case on Sunday, bringing the total number of arrests to 13. The Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrates Court then placed Khanchandani in pre-trial detention for two days. Khanchandani on Tuesday was placed in preventive detention for 14 days.
Investigators had alleged that Khanchandani was part of an internal WhatsApp group where discussions about the Logical Channel Number (LCN) would take place.
LCN is an identification number assigned to a television channel, and the allegations against the CEO of Republic TV are that he allegedly used dual LCN, which allowed him to appear in the genre of ‘children’s channels’ in addition to the category of’ news channels’. , thus appearing in two places. Investigators have claimed that Khanchandani knew of these alleged manipulations by LCN.
The Mumbai Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) told the court that it wished to question Khanchandani to understand the alleged payments made to multiple system operators and cable operators to increase TRP’s ratings.
Meanwhile, Mumbai police assured the session court on Tuesday that they will not arrest Sundaram in the case until December 21.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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