In the TRP tampering case, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday attached properties belonging to Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, and Maha Movie channels. The movable and immovable properties of these three channels include land, commercial and residential units in Mumbai, Indore, Delhi, and Gurgaon and balances in bank accounts totaling Rs. ED attached 32 Crore in the case.
According to reports, ED said the channels Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, and Maha Movie entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat and committed the offense of criminal breach of trust forgery and, thereby, fraudulently enhancing the TRP ratings. Through the TRP manipulation, these channels have received enhanced advertisement revenue of Rs 46 Crore.
In a statement, ED said, “In two of these channels, just five compromised households were contributing to approximately 25% of the viewership of Mumbai for the relevant period, and in the third channel, five compromised households were contributing to approximately 12 % of viewership of Mumbai.”
ED attaches immovable and movable properties in the form of land, commercial and residential units in Mumbai, Indore, Delhi and Gurgaon and balances in bank account totaling to Rs. 32 Crore of television channels namely Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema and Maha Movie in TRP scam case.
— ED (@dir_ed) March 17, 2021
During the investigation, Mumbai Police found the involvement of six channels, namely Republic TV, Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, News Nation, Maha Movie and Wow music channel, in boosting viewership figures.
The Republic TV implicated by Mumbai Police in the TRP scam was not part of ED’s drive. The channel is fighting against the allegations with a volley of cases in Bombay HC.
At the same time, Bombay High Court on Wednesday slammed the Mumbai Police as they failed to submit evidence against Republic in the fake TRP scam case despite filing two charge-sheets.
The court also questioned why the petitioners, including Editor-in-Chief of the channel Arnab Goswami or any of the Republic TV journalists, have not yet been named as accused in the matter.
