Bombay High Court Extends Arnab Goswami's interim protection in TRP Scam Case

Bombay High Court Extends Arnab Goswami's interim protection in TRP Scam Case

The Bombay High Court (HC) granted interim relief to Arnab Goswami, it adjourned the hearing on ARG Outlier's plea challenging the investigation of Mumbai Police in the Television Rating Point (TRP) scam case.

The controversy-ridden TRP scam case is listed to come up before the Mumbai High Court Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale on 5 March 2021. The Judges will hear the plea through video-conferencing for its interim prayer of protection.

On 16 March 2021, the HC Bench will hear via physical hearing ARG's main prayers challenging the police's investigation and seeking the transfer of probe to the CBI or any other independent agency.

The factual matrix of the case is that on 6 October 2020, the Mumbai Police registered an FIR under Section(s) 409, 420(cheating), and 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

It was claimed by the Mumbai Police that the ex-BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta had in alleged connivance with another ex-senior BARC official and Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, manipulated the television rating points (TRP) of Republic TV and its Hindi arm.

Only two employees of Republic TV including its CEO Vikas Khanchandani have been named in the two charge sheets filed. Other accused include Romil Ramgarhia and Partho Dasgupta, former CCO and CEO of Broadcast

Audience Research Council (BARC), respectively. Goswami and others were arrested and later released on bail.

The Mumbai police told the HC that the investigation conducted in the TRP scam case has prima facie indicated collusion between officials of the BARC and others to manipulate TRP.

The ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd and Goswami had approached the HC last year wherein they filed a bunch of petitions seeking several reliefs in the TRP scam. It was alleged by them that the whole case was malafide and that they have been targeted for Republic TV's reportage in the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and the Palghar lynching case last year.

In 2021, the Mumbai police had filed two affidavits in the case through Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh and ACP Shashank Sandbhor of the Crime Branch which said the police had not targeted Republic TV or its employees. It was further submitted that the police had its probe and it was not a result of any political vendetta.

The HC granted interim protection against coercive action granted to journalist Arnab Goswami and other employees of ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd that runs Republic TV channels.

The hearing was adjourned by the Court after the Government of Maharashtra's Counsel, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, mentioned that ARG had relied upon several new documents that were not part of its petition and he needs time to respond on it.

After hearing the submissions of the counsels the HC adjourned the matter. The HC agreed to advocate Sibal's statement and granted interim protection to Goswami and the other employees till the next date.