TRP case: Republic TV’s distribution head arrested; channel denies charges
A special investigation team (SIT) of Mumbai crime branch, probing the Television Rating Point (TRP) fraud case, on Tuesday arrested the Republic TV’s distribution head Ghanshyam Dilipkumar Singh, 44, from his Thane residence. The crime branch has claimed in their remand copy that Singh allegedly paid ₹15 lakh (a month) for seven months to a vendor to boost viewership of his channel. Police also claimed that hawala channels were also used for these transactions.
Singh was arrested after several days of questioning in the case. He is the 12th person to be arrested in the case. However, Republic TV in a tweet said, “Relentless attack on Republic Media network continues; Republic Distribution head AVP Ghanshyam Singh detained by crime branch; Ghanshyam had been cooperating in the Mumbai police’s fake TRP case probe.”
Sachin Vaze, assistant police inspector heading the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) and also part of the investigating team said, “Singh was produced before the court and was sent to police custody up to November 13”.
Singh’s name cropped up in the investigation while the officers were probing the role of Abhishek Kolawade alias Ajit alias Amit alias Mhadik, who was arrested on October 31.
Kolawade worked as a vendor for many channels and ran a company named Max Media. He first met Singh last year at Ashish Chaudhary’s office (11th arrested accused in the case).
Police’s remand copy stated that Kolawade’s sustained interrogation revealed that to amplify TRP of Republic TV he has received monthly ₹15lakh from Singh between January 2020 to July 2020. This money he had received at the office of Ashish Chaudhary. Some of the money he had received through the hawala channel.
The remand copy further stated that Kolawade gave some part of this money to Ramji Varma, Dinesh Vishwakarma and Umesh Mishra to further pay to the families whose house were selected for installing barometer, with instructions to watch Republic TV channels.
Kolawade would keep some part of this money with himself for personal gains. When SIT conducted a raid at his residence and office they seized ₹13.72 lakh cash.
While seeking Singh’s custody, the SIT informed the court that they wish to investigate if in past too Singh had paid money to Kolawade to increase viewership of his channels.
The police also told the court that they want to investigate if Singh was in contact with officials of Multi-System Operators (MSO) and Direct To Home (DTH) to increase the viewership of his employer channels.