No coercive action against ARG employees till Jan 6: Cops to Bombay HC

The Mumbai Police told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it will not take any coercive action till January 6 next year against ARG Outlier Medias officials and employees who are named in its charge sheet in the alleged TRP Television Rating Points rigging caseA bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik accepted the statement and extended its order protecting such employees till January 6 the next date of hearing in the matter The ARG Outlier Media operates Republic TVIt has approached the HC seeking among other things that the police be restrained from taking coercive action against its employees Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare who appeared for the Mumbai Police had made a statement on Tuesday before the bench on instructions that no coercive action would be taken against ARG medias employees till December 16On Wednesday the Maharashtra governments counsel senior advocate Kapil Sibal submitted that the police will not take coercive action till January 6 Sibal also said the police will file a reply to the petition before the next date of hearingOn Tuesday advocate Abad Ponda who appeared for the ARG Outlier Media read out from the charge sheet to point out that the police had mentioned owners managers and related persons of Republic TV as suspects in the caseThe charge sheet read Republic Channel maalak chaalak ani sambandhit vyakti Republic channel owner managers and related personsAdvocate Ponda had said this could mean the police could arrest anyone related to the channel and that the same constituted gross illegalityThis had prompted the bench to remark that the words maalak chalak were so broad that they may include anyone even reporters on the fieldThe bench had then asked advocate Thakare to take instructions from the police on no coercive action against the employees till further hearing on December 16On Wednesday as all parties sought additional time for further arguments Sibal submitted that while the police will continue with its investigation into the case it will not take any coercive action till the next dateThe ARG Outlier Media has filed several pleas and interim applications in the Bombay HC urging the court to transfer the probe into the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI or any other independent agencyThe pleas also urge the court to stay in the meanwhile any further investigation into the case and to restrain the police from taking any coercive action against the petitioners their employees or investorsThe police began a probe in the alleged TRP scam after ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council BARC filed a complaint through Hansa Research Agency about rigging of TRP by some channelsTRP measured by recording viewership data at sample households is crucial for attracting advertisers The BARC engaged Hansa to install and maintain barometers which record TV viewership data at sample householdsIt was alleged that some of these families were being bribed to tune into certain channels to ramp up their TRP In a charge sheet filed recently the police alleged that an official of Hansa paid money to sample households to tune into Box Cinema Fakt Marathi Maha Movie and Republic TVThe Republic TV has denied any wrongdoingThe police have so far arrested 13 people in the caseKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever