Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani arrived at Mumbai Police Headquarters for questioning in the TRP manipulation case. On Saturday, the police had sent subpoenas to five other people: Republic TV COOs Hersh Bhandari and Priya Mukherjee, channel distribution chief Ghanshyam Singh, Hansa Research Group CEO Praveen Nijhara and another employee, in the alleged TRP fraud investigation. All six were asked to report at 9 a.m. Sunday. “Few new subpoenas have been issued to investigate the financial angle in the TRP scam case. Everyone has been asked to join the investigation Sunday morning, “said Milind Bharambe, deputy commissioner of police for the criminal branch.
In the meantime. Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of Republic TV, denied all allegations and posted a video message on the channel’s website on Friday stating that “the channel’s name was not mentioned in the FIR.” He claimed that the channel was under attack for its coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput case and added that the channel would sue the police.
Mumbai police officers said Singh was being subpoenaed for the second time after he was issued a subpoena on October 9 to which he responded saying he was out of town until October 16.
But the criminal branch has issued a second subpoena on his behalf for October 11 at 9 am.
Earlier in the day, Republic TV Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Shiva Sundaram wrote to Mumbai police, stating that he would be available to join investigations on October 14-15 and has asked the Mumbai police not to continue with the investigation until a judicial petition has been issued in the matter before the Supreme Court.
“I am referring to the above subpoena issued by you on October 9, 2020 asking me to be present in your office on October 10, 2020 at 11 pm for the purpose of your investigation on the Subject’s First Information Report. From the outset, I would express my commitment to cooperate in such investigations, ”Sundaram says in his letter.
The letter then asks the Mumbai police to stop investigations until the hearing of the judicial petition filed with the Supreme Court.
“I wish to inform you that a writ petition under Article 32 has been filed with the Honorable Supreme Court of India (provisional application number 7848/2020) in relation to the aforementioned matter and we have requested an early hearing and it is likely that be included in the list next week. As the matter will be brought before the Honorable Supreme Court soon, I ask that you not continue with the investigations in regards to Republic TV and its employees. We will join the investigations subject to the orders of the Honorable Supreme Court of India.
The letter ends by saying: “I would also like to inform you that due to some personal commitments, I am scheduled to travel outside of Mumbai for the next few days and will therefore only be available in Mumbai from October 14-15, 2020.”
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Bharambe confirmed having received the letter. “Republic TV CFO S Sundaram delivered a letter to the police rescheduling the subpoena that was issued to him on October 9 to join the investigation,” Bharambe said.
Meanwhile, Sam Balsara, founder, president and managing director of Madison World, arrived at Mumbai Police Headquarters to assist in the investigations.
The alleged fake TRP case came after Mumbai police claimed to have blown up a TRP rigging fraud following a complaint from the broadcast audience measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). Police said Republic TV and two other local Mumbai channels were involved in manipulating crucial data that indicates which TV shows are watched the most and often used by advertisers to make decisions related to ad spending.
Branch of crime attacks EOW to investigate money trail
The Mumbai crime branch, which is investigating the financial angle, was also assisted by the Economic Crimes Wing (EOW) after it discovered that more than one million rupees was transferred to the bank account of the defendant Bompalli Rao Mistry aka Sanjiv Rao in the last ten months. The agency has also written to the GST office and income tax department to conduct a thorough investigation into the financial aspect of the TRP fraud case.
“The money was deposited in five or six transactions and the criminal branch is tracking the source of the money. The owners of Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi, deposited a certain amount. There are some other transactions that we are currently studying, ”said a senior criminal branch official.
Crime branch officials said Mistry used to give Rs 20,000 to the arrested defendant Vishal Bhandari each month to distribute to homes where barometers were installed. Criminal branch officials added that statements have been recorded from 33 of the 83 homes controlled by Bhandari, and seven teams have been formed to arrest six wanted defendants in five different states. Two of the wanted defendants have been identified as Dinesh Vishwakarma and Vinay Tripathi, both former employees of Hansa Research Private Limited. Vishwakarma, crime branch officials said, had recruited Vishal Bhandari in March 2019 and used to give him money to distribute in the home where barometers were installed from November 2019 to May 2020.
Inspector Sachin Vaze, who heads the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) and part of the investigation team, said: “Five to six defendants are wanted in the case. The criminal branch has formed several teams and are currently in five states to track down the wanted defendants. ” Police have registered 33 homes out of 83 that were monitored by Vishal Bhandari, Vaze added.
The heads of advertising companies were asked to send details
Criminal branch officials said Sam Balsara, founder, president and CEO of Madison World, and Shashi Sinha, chief executive officer of IPG Media brands, were questioned for about six hours. Balsara and Sinha have been asked to send details on how many advertisements they had received in the past two years and which channels they were advertised to. Criminal branch officials have also asked them to submit the rates at which the ads were delivered to the channels and the revenue they earned from the ads.
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