Mumbai Police on Thursday exposed a scam involving manipulation of TRPs by arresting the owners of two Marathi channels 'Fakt Marathi' and 'Box Cinema' who were active in getting TRP in a wrong way.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh on Thursday said that the TRP was manipulated as the accused would would bribe and ask some households to keep some channels on even if they were not at home. Commissioner Param Bir Singh said, Police received the data of these households from BARC, the rating agency. Republic TV is also a suspect in TRP manipulation, the Mumbai Police Commissioner said. He said, Republic TV will be summoned and questioned.
However, the police FIR does not mention the name of Republic TV. BJP leader Kapil Mishra has tweeted this information. Mishra has also said on his Twitter account that the FIR does not have the name of Republic TV but India Today. He shared the copy of the FIR pages on Twitter which mentions India Today news channel.
Meanwhile, Arnab Goswami, editor of the Republican News Channel, denied the allegations on Twitter and said he would file a defamation suit against the Mumbai police.
Mumbai Police claims India Today is also named in the FIR. However, during the investigation, those people in whose homes barometers have been installed, have named Republic TV, according to Mumbai Police.