The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai Police on Tuesday filed a third chargesheet before a magistrate #39;s court here in the alleged fake Television Ratings Points (TRP) scam.
Tag: Republic TV
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Modi the person through which Balakot information went to Arnab: Rahul lashes out at Republic TV chief
By PTI
KARUR: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the “person through which” prior information on India’s air strikes in Balakot in Pakistan in 2019 was made available to Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.The Congress MP, however, did not provide evidence to back up his claim.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) also did not immediately respond to the unfounded claim.
Addressing a roadshow here during his final day of election campaign in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, he said only five people including the PM and the Defence Minister would have prior information of the planned strikes.
“Some days back it came out that a journalist knew about the air strikes in Balakot. Three days before the (Indian) air force bombed Pakistan, an Indian journalist was told it was going to happen,” he said.
This meant the lives of our IAF pilots were put at ‘risk,’ he said.
“Now, five people in this world knew about Balakot (air strikes). Prime Minister of India, the Defence minister of India, the National Security Adviser and the Chief of the Air Force and the Home minister.”
“Nobody else in the world knew about Balakot before it happened. Now I want to understand why an enquiry has not started on who told this journalist about Balakot before it happened. The reason is that one of these five people told this man. One of these five people betrayed our Air Force,” he charged.
He alleged that “one of these people put the lives of our pilots in danger.”
“If the Prime Minister did not do it then why is he not ordering an enquiry. Think about it. The only reason that the Prime Minister has not ordered an enquiry is because he is the person through which that message has gone to this journalist,” Gandhi claimed.
Else, the PM should investigate and tell which one of these five people did it, Gandhi demanded.
Purported chats between Goswami and former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) head Partho Dasgupta, which mentioned that the former was privy to the 2019 air strike, by the IAF on the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot had surfaced recently.
The IAF had carried out the strike deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019 in the wake of killing of 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir’s Pulwama district then by Pakistan- based Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Gandhi also hit out at Modi once again over the Sino-India face-off, saying “today the Chinese army is sitting inside Indian territory.”
“The Prime Minister has said he has a 56 inch chest, big chest. Today the Chinese army is sitting inside Indian territory. Thousand km of Indian land has been taken by the Chinese,” he said.
He alleged that Modi cannot say the word China as he “does not have the courage to say” so.
“You look at his speeches for the last 3-4 months, he does not say the word China. When the Chinese entered our territory he lied that nobody has come. After some days the Army and Defence minister said the Chinese army had come into Indian territory,” Gandhi added.
“And the only reason the Chinese have the guts and the courage to come into this country is because Narendra Modi has destroyed the economy and weakened (the country) by dividing it,” he charged.
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Probe Balakot air strike info leak: Opposition
By Express News Service
MUMBAI: Opposition parties, mainly the Congress, have demanded an investigation into the purported WhatsApp chat between Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami and former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta in which the former is alleged to have told the incarcerated executive that India would strike at Pakistan three days before the actual airstrike against terror targets at Balakot in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.The purported conversation, on February 23, 2019, revealed that the government had planned the airstrike “in a way” that the people would be “elated” at “something major”.
Three days later, on February 26, the IAF conducted an aerial strike at a terror training centre in Balakot of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in retaliation for the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel had died.
The Opposition said the alleged leak of classified military information in advance amounted to treason and they should be prosecuted. The WhatsApp chats are part of the Mumbai Police’s charge sheet, submittedbefore a court, in connection with the case of alleged manipulation of TRPs by news channels, including Republic TV.
Demanding a probe into the purported conversation, senior Congress leader and minister in the Chhattisgarh government T S Singh Deo tweeted: “It’s a major security lapse if our military secrets & strategies on Balakot strike were leaked by someone in Central Govt to pvt players for their benefit. This calls for an investigation & prosecution of culprits. Leaking of classified millitary information amounts to treason.”
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi suspected that “someone very senior in the government” could be leaking the confidential information.
“Arnab’s chats dated 23.02.2019 refer to sharing of Intel reaction along the Pak border. It means someone very senior in Govt is leaking highly confidential info which may endanger the lives of our soldiers & so that mercenary considerations can add to TRPs,” he tweeted.
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the party has decided to meet the state home minister, Anil Deshmukh, with a complaint against Goswami over the issue. Meanwhile, Dasgupta was admitted in the government-run JJ hospital late on Friday night. He was arrested and lodged in Taloja jail.
Sanjay Surase, superintendent of the hospital, said the sugar level of Dasgupta had spiked and the oxygen level had come down.
“He is admitted in ICU and he is stable now. He is diabetic. We have given him oxygen and are closely monitor his health; there is nothing to worry,” Surase said.
Dasgupta’s daughter, Pratyusha Dasgupta, tweeted that her father was brought in an unconscious condition from the jail to the hospital.
“But no one from our family was informed about my father’s health… My father was suffering numerous ailments that include diabetic, hypertension, and ankylosing spondylities and autoimmune disorder. He has been ill treated and traumatized, therefore he should be shifted to private hospital. We are ready to bear the cost of his medical expenses,” she tweeted.
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Call for high-level probe in TRP scam
Express News Service
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Congress on Friday demanded a high-level probe into the purported WhatsApp chats between Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami and BARC ex-CEO Parth Dasgupta. These chats formed a part of the 3,400-page additional chargesheet submitted by the Mumbai police on Monday last, but surfaced in the public domain on Friday.Speaking to TNIE, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that the chats between Goswami and Dasgupta clearly showed that government machinery was used to suppress the TRP scam.“When Mumbai police were probing the scam, several shocking details had emerged.
However, to suppress the probe, a separate case was registered in Uttar Pradesh and later it was handed to the Enforcement Directorate. This was nothing, but an attempt to control the probe, where the role of BJP leaders was exposed,” Sawant said.
Sawant said that the TRP and government system were rigged to misguide people and exploit advertisers. “Arnab repeatedly claims that he is close to PMO, AS, and Union ministers. The BJP should clarify who this AS is,” Sawant demanded.
Republic TV counsel wants ed involvementIn the Bombay HC, Republic TV counsel Harish Salve argued that the TRP scam probe should be handed over to the ED. However, senior advocate Kapil Sibal opposed it claiming ED had no locus
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No coercive action against Arnab Goswami till January 29 in TRP case: Mumbai Police
By PTI
Mumbai, Jan 15 (PTI) The Mumbai police told the Bombay High Court on Friday that it will not take any coercive action till January 29 against Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and other employees of ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd in the alleged fake TRP scam case.ARG is the parent company that runs all Republic TV channels.
A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale also extended till January 29, the interim relief for employees of the complainant company in the case, Hansa Research Group, by directing the police to ensure they are called for inquiry for not more than two days a week.
The bench also took on record the status report filed by the Mumbai police in its investigation in the alleged scam which came to light late last year.
ARG media had approached the HC last year seeking, among other things, that the police be restrained from taking coercive action against its employees.
On Friday, ARG’s counsel senior advocate Harish Salve told the court that the allegations of the Mumbai police that Goswami paid bribes to rig TRP numbers was “nonsensical.”
Salve said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a money laundering case related to the alleged TRP scam and was probing the same.
He said the HC must call for a status report from the ED, too, and if the contents of the status reports filed by the Mumbai police and the central agency differed much, the court would realise the case against ARG was malafide.
The ED’s counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, told the bench that the central agency had readied its status report and the court must accept it in a sealed cover.
The Mumbai police’s counsel, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, however, opposed the ED’s submissions.
Sibal raised questions on the ED’s locus standi in the matter.
He also reminded the court that the financial probe agency was not a party in the case before the HC.
Salve, however, told the HC that ARG had amended its plea and sought that the ED be impleaded as a party.
The court then directed Sibal to file his reply to the amended plea and the ED being impleaded, by the next date of hearing.
While opposing the ED being joined as a party, Sibal went on to question the central agency’s “enthusiasm” to file its status report even before it was impleaded as a party.
“I have strong objections to the ED appearing in this matter. Why is this enthusiasm….,” Sibal said.
Salve, however, argued that the police must not have any opposition to the court going through the ED’s report.
“I dont understand how the State agency is trying to stop a Union agency from filing a report,” Salve said.
The court, though, refused to take the ED’s status report on record on Friday and said it will consider the same on the next date of hearing.
On January 6, Sibal had told HC that the Mumbai police will not take any coercive action against Goswami and employees of ARG till January 15.
On Friday, as the HC granted the police time to file its reply to the amended petition and adjourned the hearing to January 29, Sibal submitted that he had no objection to such protection being extended till then.
The HC accepted Sibal’s submission.
ARG Media has filed several pleas and interim applications in the HC urging the court to transfer the probe in the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any other independent agency.
The pleas also urge the court to stay in the meanwhile, any further investigation in the case, and to restrain the police from taking any coercive action against the petitioners, their employees, or investors.
The alleged racket was uncovered in October last year when the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint claiming certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.
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Architect suicide case: Arnab Goswami gets more time to amend petition
By PTI
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted further time to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami to amend his petition and place on record the charge sheet filed against him and two others in a 2018 case of abetment of suicide of an interior designer.Goswami and the two other accused Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda will have to appear before a magistrate court at Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district of Maharashtra on Thursday, pursuant to summons issued to them in December 2020.
On December 16, 2020, the magistrate’s court took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by Alibaug police in the case and directed the three accused to appear before it on January 7 to commit the case to a sessions court.
As the charges invoked in the case are punishable for more than seven years, the trial in the case will have to be conducted by a sessions court.
In November last year, Goswami filed a petition in the high court, seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the Alibaug police.
He later sought to amend his petition so as to challenge the charge sheet filed by the police.
The same was allowed by the HC in December 2020.
On Wednesday, advocate Niranjan Mundargi, appearing for Goswami, sought further time to carry out the amendment.
“The charge sheet is bulky and is in Marathi. We need to translate it to English and hence, we need some more time to do so,” Mundargi said.
The court accepted it and posted the petition for hearing on February 11.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for accused Nitish Sarda, who has also filed a petition in the HC against the FIR, sought that the court hear his arguments.
Aggarwal said the accused persons have been asked to appear before the magistrate”s court on Thursday.
To this, Justice Shinde said, “So appear there. What is going to happen? The trial is not going to start tomorrow.”
The court posted Sarda”s plea also for hearing on February 11.
The three accused were arrested by the Alibaug police on November 4, 2020.
It is the police’s case that architect and interior designer Anvay Naik committed suicide in May 2018 over alleged non-payment of dues by companies of the accused persons.
Goswami in November last year filed a petition in the HC seeking to quash the FIR, and also sought interim bail.
The HC on November 9 refused to grant interim bail following which Goswami approached the Supreme Court.
The SC on November 11 granted interim bail to Goswami.
The police filed the charge sheet in the case last month.