The Mumbai criminal branch of the police on Saturday issued a subpoena to Republic TV’s CEO and two COOs for questioning in the bogus TRP scam case, an official said.
Earlier in the day, Republic TV CFO Shiva Subramaniyam Sundaram and another official, Ghanshyam Singh, decided not to appear before the investigation team saying that the news channel had reached out to the Supreme Court.
Now CEO Vikas Khanchandani and COOs Priya Mukharjee and Hersh Bhandari have been asked to stand before the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai criminal branch on Sunday, a senior police official told PTI.
Two Republic Media Network officials (Sundaram and Singh) did not comply with the subpoena, citing a petition filed in the Supreme Court, but there has been no order from the higher court not to investigate the case, according to the latest subpoena.
Given that these two people also mentioned in their response that the company had advised them not to appear before the police, “it is necessary to record their statement in this regard,” the summons to the CEO and two other people said.
Although CFO Sundaram did not appear, police recorded the statement from Madison World and Madison Communications President Sam Balsara on Saturday, an official said.
Balsara was at the crime branch for more than eight hours, he said, adding that statements from the accountants of Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi TV were also recorded.
Sundaram, in his response to the subpoena that was sent to him on Friday, stated that a hearing in the superior court is scheduled within a week.
The CIU of the criminal branch is investigating a false Television Rating Points (TRP) fraud.
On Thursday, police arrested four people, including the owners of the Marathi channels Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema in the case.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that three channels, including Republic TV, manipulated the PRT.
The scandal came to light when the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), an organization that measures TRP, filed a complaint about it through Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, police said.
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