Court allows Mumbai police to withdraw 'fake TRP' case against Arnab Goswami and others

Mumbai: A court here on Wednesday allowed Mumbai police's plea seeking to withdraw the 'fake TRP' case where some TV channels were accused of inflating their viewership numbers by fraudulent means.

No `victims' came forward to buttress the case and police felt it would not lead to convictions, the prosecution stated in its application before the Metropolitan Magistrate at Esplanade Court.

Journalist Arnab Goswami was among those named as accused in the case, registered by police after the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) lodged a complaint in October 2020.

The court on Wednesday allowed withdrawal of the case. The detailed order was not available yet.

Special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray argued that the investigators hoped that victims of the alleged rigging of Television Rating Points (TRP) would come forward (to record statements), but no one who felt cheated turned up.

Witnesses gave contradictory statements, he said.

"In view of which, we applied our mind and felt the case would not lead to conviction and would only waste the judiciary's time and government's effort," the prosecution argued.

BARC had filed a complaint in October 2020 through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.

A supplementary charge sheet filed by police alleged that Arnab Goswami, in connivance with former CEO of BARC Partho Dasgupta, a co-accused, tampered with TRP. It cited Goswami's alleged acceptance of WhatsApp chats with Dasgupta as crucial evidence.

But in November 2023, Mumbai police moved the court under section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which enables a public prosecutor to 'withdraw from the prosecution of any person'.

The crime branch of police had arrested more than 12 persons, including Republic TV's distribution head and owners of two other channels, in the case. All of them later got bail.

Based on the Mumbai police's FIR, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also filed a money laundering complaint. But in its charge sheet filed in September 2023, the central agency claimed that no evidence was found against Goswami's Republic TV.

The Mumbai police's probe was 'at variance' with the ED's probe, the central agency said in the charge sheet.