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Former BARC chief says Arnab Goswami paid him $12,000, 40 lakh rupees: Report

Media reports quoted a supplementary chargesheet filed by Maharashtra police

arnab-ani Screengrab of Arnab Goswami | Twitter handle of ANI

The ex-chief of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has confessed that he received $12,000 from Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, and a total of Rs 40 lakh over three years, for manipulating TRP, The Indian Express quoted a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Maharashtra police in the TRP scam case.  "In 2017, Goswami had personally met me at ITC Parel hotel and given me Rs 20 lakh cash. Also in 2018 and 2019, Goswami met me at ITC hotel Parel and gave me Rs 10 lakhs each time,” Partho Dasgupta said in the confession, reported the publication. THE WEEK could not independently vouch for the veracity of the claims in the report.

The Mumbai police had earlier claimed that they had busted a fake TRP racket involving three TV channels. According to media reports, the police commissioner said the accused asked some households to continuously run some channels even when they are not watching TV or not at home, and had bribed the families to do this. The households would be paid every month for doing this, he said, and added that some of these households admitted that they were being paid to run a channel at home.

A sessions court in Mumbai on Wednesday rejected the bail application of Dasgupta, an accused in the alleged fake Television Ratings Point (TRP) case. Dasgupta was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch from Pune district last month. A magistrate court had earlier rejected his bail plea, observing that he played a vital role in the scam.

Opposing Dasgupta's bail application in the sessions court, special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray submitted that although the charge-sheet in the case has been filed, there still are multiple things which need to be investigated. He argued that Dasgupta is a key person and holds sizeable control over the entire system, hence his release will amount to tampering with the prosecution witnesses, who work under him.

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