Arnab and ex-BARC CEO exchanged only friendly chats: Bombay HC told

The Whatsapp chat between Republic TVs editorinchief Arnab Goswami and former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta were merely chats between two very close friends that had nothing to do with TRP manipulation Goswamis lawyer told the Bombay High Court on MondayThe submission was made by senior advocate Ashok Mundargi the counsel for Goswami and ARG Outlier Media the company that runs all Republic TV channels Mundargi was responding to the courts query on what was the most clinching evidence cited by the Mumbai polices crime branch in the chargesheet in the TRP scamThe highest evidence is these chats However please go through the entire chats because the police has taken these chats out of context to build its case Mundargi said He then read out some of the Whatsapp chats between Goswami and Dasgupta and told the court that the two had merely been discussing some persons market trends etcThis chat was between two very close friends There is nothing not one text or one message which shows that TRP manipulation was discussed They were discussing topics that two friends might ordinarily discuss Mundargi saidA bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale then asked if as CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council BARC Dasgupta had helped tweak the TRPs Television Rating POints in favour of Republic TV to help GoswamiMundargi responded saying while that was the polices case it had not established the same in the two chargesheets filed in the case Mundargi was making his submissions on the pleas filed by Goswami and ARG media seeking several reliefs in the TRP scam caseThe main concern is that the police had filed two chargesheets but was yet to name Goswami and several other employees of ARG media as accused in the case he said The police had merely named them as suspects and was prolonging the probe resulting in their continued harassment Mundargi addedHe said the court must ask the police not to go on with the probe indefinitely and that it must grant Goswami and others protection from arrest till the investigating remained pendingThe HC however said there was no law that empowered a court to direct the investigating agency to complete its probe within a specific time Even when the agency is using its investigation as a tool of oppression against someone to what extent can the court comment The investigating is the domain of the investigating officer in a case the HC saidIt however added that a state or Central probe agency must not harass citizens The high court also asked what was the point of naming Goswami and others merely as suspectsIf you police arent going to name them as accused then this divine exercise is a waste of time the HC saidLast week during the hearing on the above pleas the HC had said that despite the two chargesheets the police had failed to show any incriminating material on record against GoswamiOn Monday it asked if Goswami had been summoned for questioning by the police since the pleas had been filed in the high court to which Mundargi replied in negative 150 other employees of ARG have been summoned so far Five of whom are still named only as suspects he saidThe HC also asked that since the Whatsapp chats claimed to be encrypted and safe what would the police do if the parties in the case deleted the chats To this states counsel Deepak Thakare said the state Forensic Science Laboratory could retrieve even deleted Whatsapp chatsThen what was this whole halla noise about privacy and endtoend encryption about Whatsapp messages the HC asked Thakare told the judges that he will make a statement on March 25 the next date of hearing on the time the police will require to complete its probeAccording to police they possess the evidence to show that Goswami had connived with senior officials of the BARC to rig the TRPs of Republic TVThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever