Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan took to Twitter on Friday to share screenshots of alleged leaked WhatsApp chat between Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta, an accused in the TRP scam.
Dasgupta is accused of allegedly manipulated the TRP of specific TV news channels to obtain financial gain.
"These are a few snapshots of the damning leaked WhatsApp chats between BARC CEO & #ArnabGoswami. They show many conspiracies&unprecedented access to power in this govt; gross abuse of his media&his position as power broker. In any Rule of law country, he would be in jail for long,"Ā Bhushan tweeted.
These are a few snapshots of the damning leaked WhatsApp chats between BARC CEO & #ArnabGoswami. They show many conspiracies&unprecedented access to power in this govt; gross abuse of his media&his position as power broker. In any Rule of law country, he would be in jail for long pic.twitter.com/6aGOR6BRQJ
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 15, 2021
The alleged TRP scam was uncovered in October last year when the BARC filed a complaint claiming certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.
A few weeks ago, the Mumbai Police told a local court that Dasgupta manipulated the television rating points (TRP) of Republic TV and its Hindi arm. "Dasgupta misused his official position and manipulated TRP of specific news channels broadcast by ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd such as Republic Bharat Hindi and Republic TV English," the police alleged in its remand note.
The police remand note alleged that Goswami has given "payment in lakhs" to Dasgupta from time to time.
