NEW DELHI:
The Supreme Court
on Thursday declined to entertain a plea by
Republic TV
challenging
Mumbai Police investigation
into alleged
TRP scam
.
The SC allowed the channel to move the Bombay high court for relief.
The SC said it understands the channel has an office at Worli, which is close to Flora Fountain (where the HC is located). “Better you move HC for relief,” SC said.
However, while declining the plea, the SC said, “we are concerned that commissioners of police have started giving interviews” on cases.
The channel’s counsel Harish Salve withdrew the petition to move HC.
Meanwhile, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) today suspended its ratings for news channels for 3 months amid the Mumbai Police's ongoing probe into the TRP scam.
Mumbai Police crime branch probing the TRP racket on Wednesday recorded the statement of a senior editorial staffer of Republic TV. Police recorded the statement of Republic’s Mumbai-based executive editor Niranjan Narayanswamy and asked him to report again on Thursday along with senior executive editor Abhishek Kapoor.
The fake TRP scam came to light when ratings agency BARC filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.
It was alleged that some families at whose houses metres for collecting data of viewership were installed were being bribed to tune into a particular channel.
Last week, Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that Republic TV and two Marathi channels - Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi -- manipulated TRP for better advertisement revenue.
(With inputs from agencies)