Updated: October 10, 2020 3:08:46 pm
CFO S Sundaram also told police that he was not currently in Mumbai and would only return on October 15.
In spite of citation, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Republic Media Network on Saturday failed to appear with the Mumbai police to record his statement regarding the “spiked TRP scamAnd he looked for more time until the hearing of a petition filed in the Supreme Court within a week.
CFO S Sundaram also told police that he was not currently in Mumbai and would only return on October 15.
However, Sam Balsara, president and CEO of Madison World and Madison Communications, arrived and recorded his statement on the matter, news agency. PTI reported.
This came one day after the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai criminal branch ordered Sundaram to join the investigation at 11 a.m. The accountants of the television channels Box Cinemas and Fakt Marathi, also allegedly paid by a high TRP (Television Rating Point) together with Republic, were also called in to join the investigation.
“However the [Sundaram] did not appear before the investigation team. He informed police that the channel has approached the Supreme Court and that there will be a hearing on the matter in a week. Citing this, he asked the police not to record his statement, ”said an official quoted by PTI.
On Friday, police said they will write to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) seeking details of any suspicious activity on the part of some other channels, including India Today.
While India Today had been named in the FIR as a channel that allegedly made payments to the Hansa Research Group, which calculates the TRP for BARC, to obtain a high TRP, Mumbai police said on Friday that based solely on questioning Of the defendants, prima facie, it does not appear that India Today was involved in the alleged scam.
So far, based on questioning of the two detained defendants, Vishal Bhandari (21) and Bompally Rao aka Sanju Rao (44), the police have sought details from BARC’s Republic, Box Cinemas and Fakt Marathi. “There was unusual activity on the PRTs on all three channels,” said a senior IPS official.
Police said the TRP modification in the current case first came to light after BARC found some unusual readings earlier this year. During an internal investigation, he discovered that Hansa employee Vishal Bhandari was involved in tampering with readings.
In fact, Hansa discovered that Bhandari had two BAR-o-meters (installed on televisions in selected homes to measure TRP) installed at his father’s residence. Sources said that while Hansa had asked him to resign in June, the company did not file a police report at the time.
Police said this information reached one of their officers earlier this week. On this basis, he conducted an investigation and arrested Bhandari. “When we briefed Hansa officials on this, they said that their previous audit report had shown that Bhandari was tampering with the system. In his statement to the police, Hansa’s deputy general manager said that according to his audit report, Bhandari had asked people to keep India Today on to increase TRP, ”said an official.
“However, when we questioned Bhandari, he took the names Republic, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinemas… Even of the four people whose statements were recorded, who were allegedly paid for by Hansa, three denied being asked to watch India Today. The fourth person changed their statement about being asked to watch the channel. All of them have named these three channels, “added the officer.
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