TRP Scam: Court rejects bail plea of BARC's ex-CEO

Partho Dasgupta was arrested on December 30 in the TRP fixing scam. File pic

A local court on Monday rejected the bail plea of Partho Dasgupta, former CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), who was arrested in the alleged manipulation of TRP (Television Rating Points) scam.

Dasgupta had filed an application seeking bail on December 30 after the court remanded him to judicial custody. On Monday, a court of metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai rejected Dasgupta's application.

Dasgupta's advocate Kamlesh Ghumre said an appeal would be filed in the sessions court this week.

In his application, Dasgupta had claimed that he was only an employee of the BARC and not a "whole and sole [authority]", and that there are board of directors and a disciplinary committee above him in the council.

Mumbai Police's crime branch had, however, argued that Dasgupta, in connivance with another senior official from the BARC and ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd's owner Arnab Goswami, manipulated the TRPs of Republic TV and Republic Bharat (Hindi).

The police had claimed that Goswami paid in lakhs to Dasgupta in return of the manipulation.