The Hansa Research Group has filed a rejoinder at the Bombay High Court following a counter-affidavit filed by the Mumbai Police in response to its original petitioned filed at the Court in October 2020. In its rejoinder, the Hansa Research Group has reiterated that they were being pressurized to implicate ARG Outlier Media, the owner of Republic TV.
Hansa Research Group observed in the rejoinder that controversial cop Sachiz Vaze (Respondent 1 in the rejoinder), who is leading the investigation into the TRP scam, has not come forward to deny the allegations levelled against him by the group in their initial petition.
The Hansa Research Group stated in its rejoinder, “The petitioners were compelled by the unwarranted pressure and harassment to move this Hon’ble court for an independent investigation. The non denial by the first respondent and non traversal of the crucial averments reinforce the prayer made. The petitioners have no interest in any particular media channel, they cannot be compelled to implicate or exonerate any channel. Whatever facts are in their knowledge, have fully shared with the investigating agency.”
The rejoinder also said that the allegations of abetment and aid are a “figment of imagination”. It said that such allegations are based on the respondents’ “surmises and presumptions and has no iota of evidence to support.”
The rejoinder also mentions that the counter-affidavit filed by the Mumbai Police does not deal with the October 27, 2020 letter in any shape or form. It also noted that the current reply had been fied only after two and a half months since the petition was served and “that too with general denials of allegations in a formal form”.
Sachin vaze is a controversial cop who has been suspended earlier for his involvement in the custodial death of a 27-year-old software engineer. He was also accused of running an extortion racket.
The company which operates the Bar-O-Meters of BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council), had moved the Bombay High Court seeking transfer of the probe into the TRP Scam from Mumbai Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The petition had said that “the petitioners are continuously held at the Crime Branch for long hours and threatened with arrest and repeatedly pressed to make false statements.”
The report by Hansa Research based on which the FIR in the TRP case was registered, names India Today as the channel which had bribed households with the bar-o-meters to watch the channel, and it does not name Republic TV as alleged by Mumbai police. The FIR also names India Today and Republic TV finds no mention in the FIR too.