Fake TRP case: Mumbai court grants bail to Republic TV official Ghanshyam Singh

Mumbai: A court on Saturday granted bail to Republic TV’s western region distribution head Ghanshyam Singh, arrested last month in the alleged TRP (Television Rating Points) rigging scam. Singh, who is also assistant vice president at Republic Media Network, had been arrested on 10 November. The sessions court also granted bail to Vishal Bhandari, a former employee of Hansa Research Agency, who had been arrested on 8 October in the case. The order was passed by judge DS Deshmukh. The police began to probe the alleged scam after ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa about rigging of TRP by some channels. BARC has engaged Hansa to install and maintain barometers which record TV viewership data at sample households on which TRP is based. Advertising revenue of channels depends of the TRP numbers. 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 last week, the police alleged that Bhandari, who was a relationship manager with Hansa, paid money to sample households to tune into Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi, Maha Movie and Republic TV. Republic TV had denied wrongdoing. The police have arrested a total of 12 persons in the case so far.