Mumbai: Esplanade Court rejects bail of former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta

Esplanade Court on Monday rejected bail of former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta. Partho Dasgupta was sent to 14-day judicial custody on December 30, 2020.

The Mumbai Police in its report had said that ex-BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta was the 'mastermind' of the alleged multi-crore rupees TRP scam, unearthed last October.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and other officers said that the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) had allegedly conspired to boost the ratings of one new channel by reducing the viewership of its rival channels.

The 15th person to be arrested so far in the sensational TRP scam, Dasgupta was nabbed by the Pune Police .

"During his (Dasgupta's) tenure as CEO, there were reportedly quite a few allegations about manipulation of viewership data and also TRPs, and those allegations by different owners or even whistleblowers were suppressed," said Singh.

According to the report, in some cases, the (TRP) ratings appeared to be pre-decided and there was cartelisation of some high-ranking ex-BARC officials.

Prior to Dasgupta's arrest, the Mumbai Police had nabbed former COO of BARC Romil Ramgarhia and Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani, who are both now enlarged on bail.

Mumbai: Esplanade Court rejects bail of former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta.

Partho Dasgupta was sent to 14-day judicial custody on December 30, 2020.

— ANI (@ANI) January 4, 2021