CEO Vikas Khanchandani and COOs Priya Mukharjee and Hersh Bhandari have been asked to remain present before the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai crime branch on Sunday.
Mumbai: Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani reached the Mumbai Police headquarters for questioning in the TRP manipulation case on Sunday (October 11). The crime branch of Mumbai Police on Saturday had issued summons to Republic TV's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and two Chief Operating Officers (COO) for questioning in the fake TRP racket case, an official said.
“Few fresh summons have been issued to probe the financial angle in the TRP scam case. They all have been asked to join the investigation on Sunday morning” said Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police, crime branch.
Two officials of Republic Media Network (Sundaram and Singh) did not comply with the summons, citing a petition filed in the Supreme Court, but there has been no order from the apex court not to investigate the case, the latest summons said.
Since these two persons also mentioned in their reply that the company had advised them not to appear before police, "it is necessary to record your statement in this regard", the summons to the CEO and two others said.
Meanwhile, Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of Republic TV, has denied all allegations and put out a video message on the channel’s website on Friday stating the “channel’s name was not mentioned in the FIR”. He claimed the channel was being targeted for its coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput case, and added that the channel would sue the police.
On Thursday, the police had arrested four persons including owners of Marathi channels Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema in the case.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that three channels including Republic TV manipulated the TRP.
The racket came to light when the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), an organization which measures TRP, filed a complaint in this regard through Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, the police said.