October 21, 2020 4:45:11 am
Since then, Mumbai police have arrested several people and issued subpoenas to key Republic officials for questioning. Republic approached the Supreme Court against the FIR, but addressed the Bombay High Court.
Even as the Bombay High Court is hearing a Republic TV petition against the Mumbai police for filing an FIR against the channel for allegedly manipulating TRPs, the Uttar Pradesh police have registered a similar FIR against “unknown” channels and individuals.
On Tuesday, the Center transferred UP’s case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which immediately registered an FIR.
Sources from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which has administrative control over CBI, said that after the FIR’s registration by the UP Police on October 17, the state government sent a request to the Center for the case to be delivered to CBI. “The notification has been issued today by the Ministry to take control of the case,” said a Ministry official.
A CBI official said: “The FIR has been registered. It is against unknown persons and is a reproduction of the FIR registered by the UP Police ”.
UP police registered the FIR at Lucknow’s Hazratganj Police Station based on a complaint by one Kamal Sharma, who claims to run an advertising and media business called Golden Rabbit Communications.
In his complaint, which is part of the FIR, Sharma has alleged: “I have reliable information that certain unknown defendants, in compliance with a common intention, have entered into a criminal conspiracy to deceive / attempt to deceive and also to commit the crime of criminal breach of trust, falsification and, in the process, undue gains by manipulating the Television Rating Points, commonly known as TRP ”.
The FIR does not mention any defendants, so it is an “open” FIR, which means that all television channels could be investigated. It has invoked Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intent), 406, 408 and 409 (all related to criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC.
On October 6, the Mumbai police had registered an FIR alleging manipulation of TRP by certain television channels. He later told a news conference that investigations had found that three channels, including Republic TV, were prima facie involved in manipulating the TRPs.
Since then, Mumbai police have arrested several people and issued subpoenas to key Republic officials for questioning. Republic approached the Supreme Court against the FIR, but addressed the Bombay High Court.
The new development comes when Republic TV lawyer Harish Salve petitioned the Bombay High Court to transfer the case from the Mumbai police to the CBI.
The UP FIR describes the importance of TRPs to advertisers and investors, and how certain channels manipulate them. The complaint attached to the FIR also requested an examination of the role of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the industry body that publishes PRTs.
“If BARC works partially by modifying the data belonging to TRP as a result of a conspiracy to favor certain channels, not only could there be serious repercussions … it would also cause a financial benefit (illicit profit) to the channel in whose favor such manipulation … is done.”
The injunction filed by ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, Republic TV’s parent company, stated that the Mumbai police were “determined to falsely implicate” the channel and “silence (their) news reports,” and called for the case be transferred to the CBI.
“The investigation will have an effect across India from various stakeholders including cable TV operators, broadcasters, media agencies, advertisers and all other interested parties, and criminal culpability of any magnitude requires an investigation. across India by a reputed agency like the IWC to find out the reality. conspiracy and alleged malpractices of any interested party, “said the petition.
“It is important to entrust the investigation to a centralized agency so that all stakeholders have faith and any investigation carried out by the Mumbai police in a premeditated and pre-planned manner to implicate the petitioners will have a ripple effect on the industry. television, but it will also set a very wrong precedent for future research. “
Salve claimed action in bad faith with the intention of suppressing the voice of the petitioners. He said that the Maharashtra police filed a large number of FIRs against Republic TV and its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami for their reporting on the Palghar lynching case and other cases. He also referred to proceedings initiated by the Maharashtra Legislature’s Privilege Committee against Goswami.
In light of this, Salve said, if an investigation is to be conducted in the PRT case, it must be conducted by the CBI and not by the Mumbai Police, who, he said, were prejudiced against the petitioners.
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