Romil Ramgarhia would be brought before a local court, a police official said.
Mumbai:
Mumbai police arrested the former chief operating officer (COO) of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) on Thursday in connection with the alleged TRP (Television Rating Points) rigging scam, an official said.
Romil Ramgarhia, who was BARC’s COO from 2014 to 2020, was detained at his residence at Antop Hill in Mumbai early Thursday morning. He was formally placed under arrest in the afternoon by the Mumbai criminal branch, which is investigating the TRP case, he said.
This is the fourteenth arrest in the case.
After his arrest, Ramgarhia was brought before a metropolitan magistrates court here, which left him in police custody until December 19.
The police requested his custody saying they want to question him in connection with the case and also need to retrieve electronic evidence from him.
The police officer said: “During the investigation, it came to light that Ramgarhia allegedly provided secret and confidential information to certain television channels to help increase his TRP.”
“Criminal branch officials also found Ramgarhia’s alleged WhatsApp conversations with the director and chief executive officer (CEO) of ARG Outlier Company, which owns the Republic TV channel,” he said.
“Ramgarhia was BARC’s COO between 2014 and 2020 and was able to access important and sensitive information related to the channels, their national audience trends and the performance compiled by the rating agency,” the official added.
He also had information on households, where barometers have been installed, he said.
“The criminal branch is also investigating whether Ramgarhia obtained any financial benefit from sharing such important information with certain channels to help them increase the PRT,” the official said.
On Sunday, police arrested Republic Media Network CEO Vikas Khanchandani in connection with the scam. However, a court granted him bail on Wednesday.
The police launched an investigation into the alleged scam after BARC filed a complaint through the Hansa Investigative Agency about manipulation of TRP through some channels.
TRP, measured by recording audience data in sample households, is crucial to attracting advertisers.
BARC contracted with Hansa to install and maintain barometers that record television audience data in sample homes.
It was alleged that some of these families were being bribed to tune in to certain channels and increase their PRT.
In a recently filed charge sheet, police alleged that a Hansa official paid money to sample homes to tune in to Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi, Maha Movie and Republic TV.
The Republic TV has denied any wrongdoing.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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