Mumbai:
Mumbai Police on Friday issued a summons to Republic TV’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in connection with the Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation racket it is probing, an official said.
Shiva Subramaniyam Sundaram, CFO of Republic TV, was asked to join the investigation on Saturday morning, he said.
Besides him, the police also summoned accountants of Marathi channels `Fakt Marathi’ and `Box Cinema’ and those of a couple of advertising agencies, he said.
Milind Bharambe, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), confirmed that Republic TV’s CFO has been called.
The summons to Sundaram said there are reasonable grounds to believe that he is ‘acquainted with certain facts and circumstances of the matter and the same are required to be ascertained’.
He was asked to come to the city police’s headquarters around 11 am, an official said.
The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Mumbai Crime Branch is investigating the fake TRP racket.
On Thursday, the police arrested four persons including owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema in the case.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh claimed that three channels including Republic TV manipulated the TRP.
The racket came to light when BARC, an organization which measures TRP, filed a complaint in this regard through Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, the police said.
-No vindictive action by Mumbai cops in busting TRP scam: Raut-
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday dismissed the allegation that Mumbai police acted in a vindictive manner in busting the Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation racket.
“Mumbai police took a courageous step to unravel this scam. This is just a beginning…everything will be unravelled soon,” he told reporters.
“Scam worth Rs 30,000 crore has happened and why are people quiet? Who is behind all this? Where has the money come from,” Raut asked.
“The Mumbai police force is professional. No action was taken by them out of revenge or vindictiveness. But the manner in which channels functioned targeting the MVA government and the Thackeray family, isn”t it vindictiveness?” he asked.
Congratulating writer Shobha Deshpande, who staged a protest here after a city-based jeweller allegedly refused to speak in Marathi, Raut said she stood up for the respect of Marathi language.
