TRP Scam: No Coercive Action Against Arnab Goswami Till 29 January

Republic TV named in TRP scam.

(Image: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Mumbai Police on Friday, 15 January, told the Bombay High Court that no coercive action will be taken against Republic TV editor-in chief Arnab Goswami and others in the fake TRP scam case till 29 January.

According to PTI, the court also extended the interim relief for employees of the complainant company in the case, Hansa Research Group, till 29 January and directed the police that they are not to be called for inquiry for more than two days a week.

The Mumbai police also submitted the status report of its investigation on Friday.

The extension of the relief comes after the court on 6 January had directed that no action be taken till 15 January.

The Mumbai Police on 6 January had told the court that it had found evidence against Goswami in the TRP Scam.

The alleged scam came to light last year after a complaint was filed by an executive of a BARC-affiliated research agency, alleging that the viewership data was being manipulated by some of these channels through contractors associated with the agency.

The modus operandi saw these contractors and other persons making fixed monthly payments to the BARC-empanelled families to view only certain channels/programmes – neither the agency nor BARC were aware of this till their internal audits started throwing up irregularities.

(With inputs from PTI.)