Mumbai’s Esplanade Court on Wednesday allowed the city police’s crime branch to withdraw the alleged ‘fake’ TRP case against Republic TV’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami. LS Padhen, the Metropolitan Magistrate of the Mumbai court, said that the crime branch is being permitted to withdraw the FIR number 843 in the alleged TRP case of 2020.
Shishir Hiray, the special public prosecutor, told the court that proceedings will waste court’s time and may not lead to conviction. Hiray argued that ‘no one who felt cheated turned up. The special public prosecutor also said that many witnesses who were called for the testimony gave contradictory statements in the court.
What is Fake TRP Case?
The fake TRP case emerged when BARC, through Hansa Research Group, filed a complaint in October 2020, accusing certain television channels of manipulating TRP ratings.
In a supplementary charge sheet, the police alleged that Arnab Goswami, along with former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta, had tampered with TRP numbers. They pointed to Goswami’s purported WhatsApp conversations with Dasgupta as crucial evidence.
However, in November 2023, the Mumbai police sought to withdraw from the prosecution of the case under section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This section allows a public prosecutor to discontinue prosecuting a person. The crime branch had initially arrested over a dozen individuals, including Republic TV’s distribution head and owners of other channels, but they were later granted bail.