Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani is the thirteenth person to be arrested in the TRP manipulation case being investigated by the Mumbai police crime branch. Khanchandani has already been questioned twice by the police before he was held on Sunday, 13 December.
His arrest comes barely 20 days after the Mumbai Police’s crime branch filed a charge sheet in the case. While Khanchandani is not among the 12 accused to be named in the first charge sheet, the sections he is charged under remain the same as the other accused – Sections 409, 465, 468, 406, 120B, 201, 204, 212 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Who is Vikas Khanchandani?
A media professional for over 20 years, Vikas Khanchandani worked at multiple organisations before he became CEO at Republic TV, which he joined in 2017.
Khanchandani worked as a Manager in strategic planning – advertising sales at Star India Pvt Ltd between 1999 to 2003. He then joined NDTV as Senior Vice President. After a stint of seven years at NDTV Media Ltd, he joined AIDEM Ventures Pvt Ltd in 2010. He held the post of Director at AIDEM Ventures where he remained for six years, till March 2016.
After a short six-month stint at Reliance Broadcast Network as Chief Business Officer, Khanchandani joined Republic TV.
Why Has He Been Arrested?
Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV has been accused of manipulating TRPs along with channels like Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi, News Nation, Maha Movies among others. The crime branch in its charge sheet had mentioned that apart from manipulating TRP by rigging the bar-o-meters, Republic officials also contacted cable operators to fix LCN and LCN promotion.
Sources say, Vikas Khanchandani was part of Republic TV’s internal WhatsApp group where discussions about LCN (Landing Channel Number) and Promotion LCN discussions took place. During the probe, the police have allegedly been able to establish that Khanchandani was aware of the channel’s malpractices to manipulate TRP.
Republic TV’s distribution head, Ghanshyam Singh, was arrested in November, in connection with the same case. He was granted bail earlier in December.
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