The accused, Abhishek Kolwade, who runs a marketing company called Maximum media, was the 10th person arrested in the case. The statement read: “The 10th person arrested is a Thane resident. During the course of the investigation, he has confessed that he has been accepting money from at least two news channels (Republic and News Nation) and that he used to pay certain households through his associates. ” Two of his associates were arrested earlier, according to the statement. Three other channels, Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi and Maha Movie, are also being investigated to inflate audience figures.
The police press release said investigations have revealed a money trail between a Hansa group company and ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, the company that operates Republic TV. According to the police, these “transactions” with “suspicious channels” were not revealed to the special investigation team (SIT) by “any of the witnesses of any of the Hansa Group companies.”
Republic has countered the accusation saying that the payment made by Hansa Vision to Republic supersedes the on-air advertising carried out for the period October 2017 to October 2018. “These facts are completely legitimate and in plain view, supported by documentation for each transaction related to it. Advertising contracts and payments are therefore a norm in the broadcast news industry and not an illegality. ”
Hansa has been contracted by the Broadcasting Audience Research Council (BARC) to install bar-o-meters in homes across the country to track audience. In Mumbai, some households where the meters were installed have accepted being paid to keep certain channels on, police said.
Police said a team of forensic auditors has been hired to assist SIT in investigating the manipulation of audience figures by channels in order to obtain better rates for advertisements. Police said many of the arrested suspects and some wanted defendants were employees of Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, who had misused the confidential data entrusted to them. This was done to benefit the investigated channels and resulted in losses for advertisers and their agencies, police added.
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