Republic Media Network Chief Executive Officer Vikas Khanchandani was arrested from his residence by the Mumbai Police on Sunday morning. The arrest came after a police conducted an early morning raid at his residence in connection with ongoing TRP case. The arrest came a day ahead of the hearing on Vikas Khanchandani's anticipatory bail plea. Reacting to the arrest, Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami said, "Vikas Khanchandani has cooperated and complied with the Mumbai Police and has faced over 100 hours of interrogation in the fake TRP case. Republic CEO's arrest by the Mumbai Police without any papers once again exposes the malicious and vengence filled intentions of the Mumbai Police persecuting the network. This is the 13th arrest made by the Mumbai Police in the TRP scam case. The arrest comes days after a sessions court granted anticipatory bail to Republic TV COO Priya Mukherjee in the same case.
The Sessions court directed Mukharjee to appear before the concerned police station once every week. In case, Mukharjee is arrested, she can be released on bail bond of Rs. 50,000, the court added. Mukherjee had claimed in her bail petition that neither the FIR nor the complaint filed by the employee of Hansa Group named Republic TV or any official of ARG as the accused.Mukherjee claimed the investigation in the case was frivolous as the complaint was against breach of trust and cheating against one of its employees. The network's Assistant Vice President for Distribution, Ghanshyam Singh was granted bail earlier this week. Upon his release, the channel had moved an application in the Bombay High Court stating that he was "barbarically hit and whipped with a thick belt" that was kept in the interrogation room. The application also stated that Ghanshyam Singh was allegedly mentally tortured and threatened with harm to his physical well-being in order to compel him in the to narrate falsehoods and implicate himself and ARG Outlier in the TRP scam case.