Mumbai police, during investigation into the alleged tampering of television rating points (TRP), has found that Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami along with Partho Dasgupta, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) had conspired to manipulate TRP’s. Their chats also revealed that Arnab perhaps knew about Indian’s strike on Balakot.
In a WhatsApp chat, Goswami wrote that something big will happen and then three days later Indian forces did a strike in Balakot. “Bigger than a normal strike,” were the exact words he had used.
Their chats show the two discussing the manipulation of TRP’s to make Republic TV the most watched news channels. The chats which are over 1000 pages also show that both of them are part of the 3400 chargesheet Mumbai Police filed earlier this week. Goswami’s close relation with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the broadcast ministry is clear through the messages. The message indicate that he has taken advantage of the connections that he has with PMO.
However, even though the chats show both Dasgupta and Goswami to be guilty, only Dasgupta was mentioned as the prime accused in the scam case. Goswami is not mentioned. Dasgupta is already in the custody of Mumbai Police. He was arrested in December on the bases that he had taken bribes of huge sums to increase the ratings of Republic TV to bring it under suspicion.