MUMBAI: The Mumbai police’s crime branch probing the TRP manipulation scam on Tuesday arrested Ghanshyam Dilipkumar Singh (44), the distribution head of Republic TV, on charges of paying a monthly sum to artificially increase viewership figures of the channel, reports Ahmed Ali.
Singh, a resident of Ghodbunder Road in Thane, is the 12th accused to be arrested in the case. Singh, the vice-president of the channel, was questioned earlier by the police on multiple occasions. A metropolitan magistrate remanded him in police custody till November 13. Singh is accused of paying monthly sums to Abhishek Kolawade of marketing company Max Media to increase the TRP of Republic Bharat between January 2020 and July 2020, the remand application submitted by the police in the court said. Kolawade also has accepted money from officials of Wow music channel, officials said.
The crime branch is probing the role of six channels — Republic TV, Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, News Nation, Mahamovies and Wow — for inflating viewership figures, a key parameter that media-buying houses consider while placing advertisements. The channels are accused of paying money to households (in those houses where barometers are installed) for keeping the channels on.
Singh is the distribution head of AGR Outlier Media Pvt Limited, the company that operates Republic TV, and he is in contact with several officials of Multi System Operators (MSO) and Direct to Home (DTH) service providers, the remand application said. Police said that they wanted to interrogate him to know more about the payments made.
Police further said that Kolawade also received Rs 15 lakh per month from Singh to increase the TRP of Republic TV channel and he even received money from hawala operators, the remand application said. Police are looking for those hawala operators who could be witnesses in the case, remand application said. Police said Singh paid money to another arrested accused, Ashish Choudhary too. Choudhary in turn paid money to Kolawade, the application said.
Kolawade then distributed the money he received among the other accused, viz, Ramji Verma, Dinesh Vishwakarma and Umesh Mishra, who in turn paid money to those households where the barometers were installed and who were asked to keep Republic TV on. Police had recovered Rs 11.72 lakh from Kolawade’s house and Rs 2 lakh from Choudhary’s office in Thane during a recent raid. To measure TRPs, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) company has installed barometers in the homes of select audiences. BARC had given the contract of monitoring the barometers to Hansa Research.
A metropolitan magistrate remanded him in police custody till November 13. Singh is accused of paying monthly sums to Abhishek Kolawade of marketing company Max Media to increase the TRP of Republic Bharat between January 2020 and July 2020, the remand application submitted by the police in the court said. Kolawade also has accepted money from officials of Wow music channel, officials said.
The crime branch is probing the role of six channels — Republic TV, Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, News Nation, Mahamovies and Wow — for inflating viewership figures, a key parameter that media-buying houses consider while placing advertisements. The channels are accused of paying money to households (in those houses where barometers are installed) for keeping the channels on.
Singh is the distribution head of AGR Outlier Media Pvt Limited, the company that operates Republic TV, and he is in contact with several officials of Multi System Operators (MSO) and Direct to Home (DTH) service providers, the remand application said. Police said that they wanted to interrogate him to know more about the payments made.
Police further said that Kolawade also received Rs 15 lakh per month from Singh to increase the TRP of Republic TV channel and he even received money from hawala operators, the remand application said. Police are looking for those hawala operators who could be witnesses in the case, remand application said. Police said Singh paid money to another arrested accused, Ashish Choudhary too. Choudhary in turn paid money to Kolawade, the application said.
Kolawade then distributed the money he received among the other accused, viz, Ramji Verma, Dinesh Vishwakarma and Umesh Mishra, who in turn paid money to those households where the barometers were installed and who were asked to keep Republic TV on. Police had recovered Rs 11.72 lakh from Kolawade’s house and Rs 2 lakh from Choudhary’s office in Thane during a recent raid. To measure TRPs, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) company has installed barometers in the homes of select audiences. BARC had given the contract of monitoring the barometers to Hansa Research.