Mumbai: Mumbai Police arrested Thursday Romil Ramgarhia, the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). Ramgarhia was arrested in connection with the alleged TRP case, an official said. He was arrested in the afternoon, by a team of Mumbai crime branch, which is probing the TRP case, he said. This is the 14th arrest in the case.
“During the probe, Ramgarhia’s alleged involvement in the TRP case came to light. He was placed under arrest today (Thursday),” the police official said. He would be produced before a local court, he added.
The police had arrested Sunday, Republic Media Network’s CEO Vikas Khanchandani in connection with the scam . However, he was granted bail by a court Wednesday.
Also read: Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani arrested, in police custody till Dec 15
The police began a probe into the alleged scam after ratings agency BARC filed a complaint through ‘Hansa Research Agency’ about rigging of TRP by some channels. TRP, measured by recording viewership data at sample households, is crucial for attracting advertisers.
The BARC engaged Hansa to install and maintain barometers which record TV viewership data at sample households. It was alleged that some of these families were being bribed to tune into certain channels to ramp up their TRP.
In a chargesheet filed recently, the police alleged that an official of Hansa paid money to sample households to tune into ‘Box Cinema’, ‘Fakt Marathi’, ‘Maha Movie’ and ‘Republic TV’. The Republic TV has denied any wrongdoing.