A Mumbai sessions court on Wednesday, 20 January, dismissed the bail plea of ex-CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta, who was arrested on 24 December in the alleged TRP scam case.
The court had reserved its verdict on Dasgupta’s bail on Tuesday after Mumbai Police expressed strong disagreement in granting him bail, Live Law reported. Special Public Prosecutor Shishir Hirey also argued against Dasgupta’s bail, citing his WhatsApp chats with Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.
Hirey referred to the chats released as part of Mumbai Police’s chargesheet in the TRP probe, saying that as the CEO of BARC, Dasgupta had failed to take a neutral stand and made decisions for his personal gain.
The chats reflected that both allegedly spoke of manipulating the TRPs of Republic TV to gain rating and surpass other news organisations.
Dasgupta’s lawyers, Shardul Singh and Arjun Singh argued that the chats were not authenticated by a 65B certificate under the Indian Evidence Act, Live Law reported.
He also went on to provide explanation on the process of TRP data collection, saying, “The viewership data is collected by Hansa Group (complainant), BARC's alogrithms are applied and TRP Data is published.”
The advocates appearing for Dasgupta also pointed out that others accused in the case were granted bail.
(With inputs from Live Law)
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