Mumbai:The Mumbai Police on Tuesday filed a supplementary chargesheet in the alleged TRP scam unearthed last year.Charge sheet running into 1,800-page has named Arnab R. Goswami, the Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV and others.
Goswami and the TV channel were added as accused in the TRP scam. An FIR was lodged against them during the tenure of former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, creating a nationwide sensation.
Besides Goswami, the other accused include some employees of the ARG Outlier Media, the COO Priya Mukherjee, Shiva Sundaram, Shivendu Mulelkar, Ranjit Walter, Amit M. Dave and Sanjay S. Verma, in the supplementary chargesheet filed with the Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
The police have chargesheeted at least 15 persons so far in the case who include the ex-CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council Partho Dasgupta and Republic TV CEO Vikash Khanchandani, invoking charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, destroying evidence and criminal breach of trust, etc.
In March this year, the Goswami had filed a plea in Bombay High Court alleging serious malafides against the Mumbai Police, especially the former CoP Singh and was granted temporary reprieve from arrest.
The journalist also sought to quash the FIR of Oct. 6, 2020 and the chargesheets in the case arguing that he was not named in the FIR or the chargesheet, but was kept in the suspect category as a harassment tactic and a vendetta.
Admitting his plea, Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale had directed the police to give Goswami a72-hour advance notices if they want to summon or take any coercive action against him, while the police said they would complete the probe within four months.(UNI)