Republic TV CEO arrested by Mumbai Police in fake ratings scam

MUMBAI: Vikas Khanchandani, the CEO of the national channel Republic TV has been arrested by the Mumbai Police in the fake ratings scam. Khanchandani is the 13th person to be arrested in the case so far.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Indian had turned down a plea from ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, which owns the Republic Media network, seeking protection for the group and its employees.  

It needs mention here that the group had accused the Maharashtra Police of "hounding" the media house, its Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and its employees. "This petition is ambitious in nature. You want Maharashtra Police not to arrest any employee and transfer the cases to CBI. You better withdraw this," Justice DY Chandrachud had told the group, dismissing the plea.

Ghanshyam Singh, the Head of Distribution of the channel, was named in the 1,400-page charge sheet.

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The case was filed in October after Nitin Deokar, an official of Hansa Research, an agency that placed the ratings metres, filed a complaint alleging the process was being manipulated.   

After investigating the matter, the Mumbai Police said Republic TV -- which claims to have the highest ratings -- was tweaking ratings to get high advertising rates.

The police has stated that Republic TV paid some households to keep certain channels on. In each house, the people were paid ₹ 400 to ₹ 500 a month.  

Republic TV claims that the accusations were a matter of vendetta by the Mumbai police following their clash over the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

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