No Action Against Republic Group Workers Till 6 Jan: Police to HC
The HC bench has accepted the statement by the police that no action will be taken till the next hearing.
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The Mumbai Police on Wednesday, 16 December told the Bombay High Court that no coercive action will be taken against ARG Outlier Media’s officials and employees who are included in the TRP rigging case until the next hearing, reported PTI.
On Wednesday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, on behalf of the Maharashtra government, submitted to the court that the police will continue its investigation but will not take any action till 6 January, the next hearing date. A bench consisting of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik have accepted the statement by the police.
ARG Outlier Media operates Republic TV and had petitioned the court with several pleas and interim applications to protect its employees urging the court to transfer the probe into the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any other ‘independent’ agency, reported PTI.
The Mumbai Police began a probe in the alleged Telivision Rating Program (TRP) scam of Republic TV after ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa Research Agency about rigging by some channels, reported PTI. TRP is a tool provided to judge which programmes are viewed the most and is used to attract advertisers.
In their charge sheet, the police alleged that an official of Hansa paid money to sample households to tune into Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi, Maha Movie and Republic TV, reported PTI. However, Republic TV has denied these claims. The police have so far arrested 13 people in the case.
(With inputs from PTI)
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