Mumbai Police arrest one more person in TRP rigging case

Mumbai Police has made a ninth arrest in the Television Rating Points (TRP) rigging case, an official said on Friday.

Harish Kamlakar Patil (45), a resident of suburban Chandivali, was arrested by the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the crime branch which is probing the case.

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Patil was apprehended on Thursday evening after his name cropped up during the interrogation of Ramji Sharma and Dinesh Vishwakarma, former employees of Hansa research agency, he said.

It was suspected that Patil took money from some TV channels to fraudulently ramp up TRP, he said.

Investigation revealed that there were some financial transactions between Patil and absconding accused Abhishek Kothawale who runs a company named Max Media.

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Patil allegedly helped Kothawale to flee from the city after the probe began, he said.

The alleged fake TRP scam came to light when ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint with the police through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain channels were rigging TRP numbers to lure advertisers.

It was alleged that some families at whose houses meters for collecting data of viewership were installed were being bribed to tune into a particular channel.