New Delhi: The former chief executive of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Partho Dasgupta, has alleged in a handwritten statement to the Mumbai Police that Arnab Goswami bribed him to manipulate viewership ratings in favour of his channel Republic TV, according to an Indian Express report.
BARC is responsible for measuring the television rating points (TRPs) of channels.
Dasgupta’s statement says he received from Goswami $12,000 for two separate holidays and a total of Rs 40 lakh over three years, in return for “rigging” the ratings to push his channel to the top, the report said.
Dasgupta’s lawyer Arjun Singh has denied the allegations, saying that it would have been recorded “under duress”. He added, “It does not have any evidentiary value in the court of law.”
On January 11, the Mumbai Police filed a 3,600-page supplementary chargesheet – of which 1,000 pages consisted of WhatsApp chats between Dasgupta and Goswami discussing ways to manipulate the television ratings. The purported chats also showed Goswami’s close proximity with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and suggested that he was aware of many key decisions taken by the Centre.
Also read: ‘Did PM Modi Leak State Secrets to Arnab Goswami?’: Rahul Gandhi Calls for Inquiry
Apart from this, the police recorded statements of 59 persons, including 15 experts, and submitted a forensic audit report.
The supplementary chargesheet was filed against Dasgupta, former BARC COO Romil Ramgarhia and Republic Media Network CEO Vikas Khanchandani. A first chargesheet was filed against 12 persons, including Republic TV’s distribution head and owners of two other channels, in November 2020.
According to the Indian Express report, in the second chargesheet, the crime intelligence unit submitted Dasgupta’s statement that was recorded on December 27, 2020 at 5:15 pm in the presence of two witnesses. Dasgupta’s statement says that he knew Goswami since 2004, when they used to work for Times Now.
While Dasgupta joined BARC as CEO in 2013, Goswami launched his channel in 2017. Goswami, who was very well aware that Dasgupta knew how the TRP system works, then itself had indirectly hinted him at helping him to get good ratings to his channel, the report added.
Dasgupta’s statement further says that he manipulated TRP ratings with his team from 2017 to 2019 and ensured Republic TV gets number 1 rating. “…in 2017 Arnab Goswami had personally met me at St Regis hotel, Lower Parel and given me $6000 cash for my France and Switzerland family trip…also in 2019 Arnab Goswami had personally met me at St Regis and given me $6000 for my Sweden and Denmark family trip. Also in 2017, Goswami had personally met me at ITC Parel hotel and given me Rs 20 lakh cash… also in 2018 and 2019… Goswami met me at ITC hotel Parel and gave me Rs 10 lakhs each time…”
Also read: In Arnab’s Purported ‘WhatsApp Convos’, a Peek at TRAI Tussle and Landing Row
More details on the audit report
BARC’s audit was conducted by Acquisory Risk Consulting. According to the Indian Express, between 2018 and 2019, six top BARC executives were involved in “manipulation of ratings and violation of the code of ethics”. These executives included Dasgupta, Ramgarhia, head of products (South) Venkat Sujit Samrat, head of West Rushab Mehta, vice president of strategy Pekham Basu, and chief people officer and strategy Manashi Kumar.
As per news reports, the forensic inquiry into the scam ran parallel with a series of resignations at the rating agency. Among those who quit were Mehta, Samrat, and Manashi Kumar, chief people officer and head of strategy. Newslaundry reported that every BARC employee it approached sounded “terribly scared” to talk about the alleged scam.
The audit report is backed by emails and messages as evidence for weeks in which Times Now’s data and ratings were decreased, to make Republic TV the number 1 channel.
According to the Indian Express, the audit report has named several other media groups as well. Conversations between BARC’s executives and a top marketing executive of India Today Group, in 2016, pointed towards “pre-fixing” the ratings for Aaj Tak. India Today Group did not respond to queries from the Indian Express.
The report said that when Sunil Lulla was appointed as the new CEO of BARC in October 2019, he spoke about allegations about TRP manipulation from the media industry against a few BARC officials, including Dasgupta.
In October 2020, BARC India and one of its vendors, Hansa, approached the Mumbai Police with a complaint against “suspicious trends and activities”, leading to multiple revelations on the TRP scam. Certain households were allegedly bribed to keep their TV sets on, irrespective of whether they were watching it or not, therefore rigging viewership data in some channels’ favour.
According to the Indian Express,the chargesheet includes statements by cable operators saying they were asked to show Republic on two channels to increase its TRP in exchange for money. Two operators said they were asked to raise vouchers of Rs 11,800 each, it said.