Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 22: In the charge sheet submitted before a special court, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) asserts that no proof was discovered against Republic TV in the purported TRP rigging fraud. The central agency said in the charge sheet that the Mumbai police’s investigation was “at variance” with its investigation in this regard.
The ED also stated that it had information that several regional and entertainment channels had been paying sample or “panel” families in order to manipulate Television Rating Points (TRP).
The charge sheet was recognised by Judge M G Deshpande on Wednesday at the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court located here.
Notably, in November 2020, the ED submitted an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), which is comparable to a police FIR.
The ECIR came after the Mumbai Police filed a First Information Report alleging TRP manipulation by Republic TV, two Marathi channels, and a few other parties. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), a rating organisation, reported the fraud through Hansa Research Group.
According to the ED charge sheet, there was a larger plot including channel viewers, agents, and regional managers to persuade/induce panel families to watch particular channels in order to profit financially.
TRP relies on sparse statistical data from 45000 houses across India and almost 1800 families in Mumbai, it was revealed. It is very difficult to say exactly when the system was influenced, but different channel owners did so for a sizable amount of time, the report claimed.
