The CFO of Republic Tv, S Sundaram has moved the Supreme Court challenging the summons issued to the network by the Mumbai Police in relation to the ‘Fake TRP case’
The Mumbai Police on Friday issued summons to Sundaram, asking him to appear before it on Saturday morning. It is alleged that Republic TV and two other Marathi channels, manipulated their Television Rating Points, or TRP.
The Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested owners of channels Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema after their Detection Crime Branch busted a TRP racket in which the police suspect involves an amount of over Rs 100 crore.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said that the owners have been charged under Sections 409 & 420 IPC for the offense of criminal breach of trust and cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.
Sundaram in his petition has challenged the summons issued to him dated 9th of October and sought an early hearing in the matter. Earlier, he had urged the Mumbai Police to halt the probe against Republic TV Network and its employees till the matter was heard in the apex court.
Sundaram wrote "At the outset, I would express my commitment to cooperate in the said investigations. I wish to bring to your notice that a Writ Petition under Article 32 has been filed before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India (Provisional Application Number 7848/2020) in relation to the above-referred matter and we have requested for an early hearing and it is likely to be listed by next week. Given that the matter is likely to be listed soon before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, I request you to not proceed any further with the investigation in so far as Republic TV and its employees are concerned,"
The Republic TV in a press release, said, “Acting in malice and conspiracy, the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra Government on Thursday afternoon launched a fake case against us, without even doing a preliminary investigation”. The media house has vowed to fight this “witch-hunt” tooth and nail and win it.
Arnab Goswami, Republic TV Editor-in-Chief has denied all the allegations, claiming a witch-hunt against his channel for questioning the police and the Maharashtra Govt. He also threatened that he will file a Case of criminal Defamation against the Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
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