New Delhi (ILNS): A Mumbai Court has granted bail to the owner of the Fakt Marathi channel, Shirish Pattanshetty, arrested in the alleged fake TRP case. Mumbai’s Additional Sessions Judge PR Sitre has granted bail to Pattanshetty on a bond of Rs 50,000.
Pattanshetty’s lawyer Aniket Nikam argued in the court that his client did not manipulate the TRP nor did it increase the TRP of the Marathi channel. He said that the revenue of the channel also did not increase during the relevant period.
He alleged that his client was implicated in ‘retaliation’ action. Nikam said that interrogation of Pattanshetty from detention yielded nothing and further detention would serve no purpose. It is known that Pattanshetty was arrested in the past.
The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), through the Hansa Research Group, had complained to the Mumbai Police that some channels were manipulating the TRP to attract advertisers. It was alleged that people who have meters installed to collect viewership figures were paid to watch the respective channels. In this case, the names of Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema and Republic TV came up. So far, 11 people have been arrested in the case of fake TRPs.
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