The Mumbai Police on Tuesday submitted the chargesheet in the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam case naming Editor-in-chief of Republic TV Arnab Goswami as an accused.

Goswami and four others from ARG Outlier Media that owns Republic TV – COO Priya Mukherjee, Shivendu Mulelkar and Shiva Sundaram –  have been named as accused in the 1800-page second supplementary chargesheet, reported Live Law.

An FIR in the case was registered nine months ago after former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh named the channel being involved in the scam.

On October 8, 2020, Singh had said that a TRP racket had been busted which involved Republic TV, Box Cinema, and Fakt Marathi. According to him, the channels were manipulating TRPs by allegedly bribing Partho Dasgupta, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), to ramp up their viewership.

The TRP scam came to light last year when BARC lodged a complaint through Hansa Research Group alleging that certain TV channels were rigging TRP numbers.

The Mumbai Police has arrested 13 people in connection with the case, including former COO of BARC. It has chargesheeted 12 people in the case, including former officials of Hansa Research Group, owners of news channels and one Republic Media employee – assistant vice-president (distribution) Ghanshyam Singh. They have been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.