The former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, Partho Dasgupta, who has been arrested in the TRP scam has said that he received 12,000 US dollars from Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami for two holidays and Rs 40 lakhs in 3 years for manipulating TRP of the news channel.
Under custody, Dasgupta made the revelation in a handwritten statement to Mumbai Police, according to the supplementary charge sheet filed in the TRP scam case.
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“Towards this, in 2017, Arnab Goswami had personally met me at St Regis hotel, Lower Parel and given me 6,000 dollars cash for my France and Switzerland family trip…also in 2019 Arnab Goswami had personally met me at St Regis and given me 6,000 dollars for my Sweden and Denmark family trip.
"Also 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…,” Dasgupta said in a statement.
According to a national media report, the 3,600-page supplementary charge sheet was filed by Mumbai Police on January 11.
In the audit report, there are names of several news channels, including Republic, Times Now and Aaj Tak, and lists instances of alleged manipulation as well as “pre-fixing” of ratings for the channels by top executive of BARC India.
The Mumbai Police filed the supplementary charge sheet against ex-BARC India CEO Dasgupta, former BARC COO Romil Ramgarhia, and Republic Media Network CEO Vikas Khanchandani.
The Mumbai Police filed its first charge sheet in November 2020.
The first charge sheet, filed by Mumbai Police in the TRP scam case had taken 12 names.
