The Bombay High Court has granted bail to former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta, after more than a month and a half in the custody of Mumbai Police.
Dasgupta was arrested on 24 December after allegations of manipulating viewership data as well as TRP. The arrest was made after a third-party audit which submitted a report to the Mumbai Police in July 2020.
On 15 January, he was taken to JJ Hospital (Mumbai) in an unconscious state, after WhatsApp conversations of more than 500 pages between him and Republic TV's Arnab Goswami had gone viral on social media, in connection with the #TRPScam. It is claimed that senior BARC India officials manipulated ratings to make Republic TV as the most-viewed English news channel.
Since then, Times Network has sent a legal notice to BARC. It has alleged that illegal and fraudulent viewership data caused the channel damage worth Rs 431 crore.
