Republic TV’s Executive Editor Niranjan Narayanaswamy has been summoned by the Mumbai Police on Wednesday, 21 October, in connection with the probe into the alleged Television Rating Points (TRP) scam.
The others summoned on Wednesday are the channel’s CFO S Sundaram and distribution head Ghanshyam Singh. Meanwhile, Republic TV’s COO Priya Mukherjee has been summoned on Thursday, sources told The Quint.
Sundaram, who has been summoned earlier as well, had written to the Mumbai Police saying that a writ petition has been filed before the Supreme Court regarding the summons, and requested them to not proceed with the investigation till this was heard.
The Mumbai Police had summoned Narayanaswamy as well as Senior Executive Editor Abhishek Kapoor in connection with the rigged TRPs case before as well, on 14 October.
Republic TV is embroiled in the fake TRP’s controversy that is being probed by the Mumbai Police. Republic TV and two other channels have been accused of paying off households to watch their channels in exchange for money.
The network has said that it will sue the Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh for allegedly damaging its reputation by linking it to the TRP scam.
A press release from Republic TV said that Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director Arnab Goswami has directed his legal team to initiate the proceedings to sue the Mumbai Police Chief for Rs 200 crore damages, comprising Rs 100 crore for damage to Goswami’s reputation, and Rs 100 crore for damage caused to the network.
Meanwhile, Goswami has written a letter to President Kovind, claiming that such actions were being taken “purely out of malice, political whim and vendetta by the Maharashtra Government.” Pointing out that every journalist in the country is entitled to Freedom of Speech and Expression, Goswami claimed that the entire machinery of the state of Maharashtra has been used against him, his company ARG, and his employees.
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