The Mumbai police’s charge-sheeting of Republic TV, led by Arnab Goswami, in the much-debated TRP manipulation case is being pulled back by the government.
In accordance with the government’s orders, the public prosecutor for the Mumbai police crime branch has submitted an application to the Esplanade court to withdraw the case, claiming that no criminal offence has been committed and that only regulatory violations have occurred.
According to a senior officer of the Mumbai police, who spoke to a popular news daily on the condition of anonymity, the government has the power to move an application before the court concerned to withdraw an entire case if it reaches the conclusion that the offence alleged is not in the scope of the Indian Penal Code and there are serious flaws in the investigation conducted previously. This action is taken under Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The officer declared that the court has the power to either approve or decline the withdrawal application, with the prosecutor’s application usually being the deciding factor. They added that if the court finds any severe infractions in the withdrawal process, then the application will be denied and the trial will go on.
A source has revealed that the state government has been looking into the highly-publicized case of TRP manipulation during the Maha Vikas Aaghadi (MVA) regime. This case was investigated by Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Waze, who is said to be a close confidante of the previous Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. Both of them have since been embroiled in controversies; Waze was arrested in connection to the Antilia bomb scare, while Singh was implicated in several cases. Allegedly, the MVA had targeted Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, as he had been airing stories that were critical of the government and lacked factual accuracy.
Representatives of the MVA have publicly stated that Goswami was carrying out a mission on behalf of the BJP to denigrate the MVA. During a press conference in October 2020, Singh reported that Republic TV and two other channels – Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi – were involved in manipulating TRP ratings; however, Republic TV was not mentioned as an accused in the FIR.
The Mumbai police crime branch has filed two supplementary charge sheets against 13 accused, including Arnab Goswami and some of his Republic TV employees, in the TRP manipulation case. It has been alleged that households which had received Bar-O-Meters from BARC were bribed to watch certain channels, thus helping the accused to get higher ratings. This would lead to more advertisement revenue for their news channels due to the higher TRPs. Several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including cheating, criminal conspiracy, and destruction of evidence, have been applied in this case.
