MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday adjourned to February 15 the hearing in a plea of bail filed by former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Partho Dasgupta, accused in the alleged Television Rating Point (TRP) rigging case.
Dasgupta’s lawyers said that they would first seek withdrawal of his petition filed earlier before the Supreme Court. That petition was filed only on health grounds, and “not on merit of the case”, Shardul Singh, counsel for Dasgupta, informed the court.
Special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray submitted before Justice P D Naik that though informed at the last hearing —on February 2—that Dasgupta was withdrawing the plea before the SC, it was still alive and pending. He read from an SC order dated February 4 passed by a bench of Justices N V Ramana, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose. Hiray said Dasgupta was ‘forum shopping’, which the his counsel, Aabad Ponda and Singh, denied.
Dasputa is accused of misusing his official position and and conniving with ARG Outlier Media and Arnab Goswami to manipulate Republic TV’s TRPs.