No evidence against Arnab in TRP case chargesheet: Republic TV to Bombay HC

ARG Outlier Mediathe company that runs all Republic TV channels has told the Bombay High Court that the Mumbai polices chargesheet in the fake TRP scam did not disclose any evidence against Republic TV and its editorinchief Arnab Goswami who is an accused in the caseIn a rejoinder affidavit filed on Tuesday in the high court to counter the polices chargesheet the company said the police had falsely implicated its employees in the caseIt said the entire case against its channels and employees arose out of an unparalleled political vendetta and a deeply malicious witch huntThe company also said its employees had been targeted for the fearless news reporting done by the Republic TV on the Maharashtra polices investigation into the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death and Palghar lynching incident of last yearRajput was found hanging at his home in Mumbais Bandra area in June last yearThe ARG Outlier Media in its affidavit said Hansa Research Group the original complainant in the case had not named the Republic TV or its employees in its complaintsThe company further said the Mumbai polices crime branch too had not found any evidence against its channels or employees and yet the police named its channels and their employees including their top management as accused and suspects in its chargesheetThe chargesheet though voluminous in weight is negligible in evidence against petitioners the affidavit said adding there is not a single shred of evidence of wrongdoing in the chargesheetThe company has also alleged in the affidavit that the police harassed and physically tortured some of its employees including Assistant Vice President Ghanshyam SinghIt said Singh CEO Vikas Khanchandani and some others were pressurised to implicate the Republic TV and other accused persons in the caseIt is a matter of public record that Singh was physically and medically tortured in custody to falsely self incriminate and to falsely incriminate his organisation the affidavit saidThe company also said the purported WhatsApp chats between Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council BARC were selectively leaked by the police to create prejudiceIt also said in the affidavit that no actual stakeholders be it advertisers or media houses which were supposedly affected by the alleged fake TRP scam had come forward as complainants in the caseThe Mumbai police last month filed two affidavits in the case through city Commissioner of Police Parambir Singh and ACP Shashank Sandbhor of the crime branch saying the police had not targeted the Republic TV or its employeesThe police said their probe was not a result of any political vendettaA bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale is presiding over a bunch of pleas filed by the ARG Outlier Media seeking among other things that no coercive action be taken against its employees and the probe be transferred from the Mumbai police to the CBI or any other independent agencyThe fake Television Rating Points TRP scam came to light last year when the ratings agency BARC filed a complaint through the Hansa Research Group alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbersTRP measured by recording viewership data at sample households is crucial for attracting advertisersThis 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