Hansa Research Group petitions HC to transfer TRP probe to CBI

According to media reports, Hansa Research Group, the field research agency, a complainant in the ‘TRP scam’ case has moved to the Bombay High Court alleging that Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch officers probing the case are pressuring its employees to ‘retract’ a report, based on which Republic TV had claimed that it was not among channels named in the case.

Hansa Research alleges that since 12 October, several employees of the company have been repeatedly summoned to the Crime Branch office and pressured to make a false statement disowning the report that was telecast on Republic TV on October 10 referred to as the ‘Hansa Report’.

Hansa Research said that it was not in a position to confirm or deny the contents of the report as Republic TV had used the report without their permission and not informed them about the nature of the report. Furthermore, only parts of the report telecast and Hansa Research claims that they need to see the entire document to ascertain its veracity.

Last month, Hansa Research had also moved against Republic TV in civil court to restrain them from citing the report as ‘Hansa Report’ as it had been telecast without their consent.  The court refused to grant the injunction.

Hansa Research claims that their employees have been detained by the Crime Branch for 200 man hours without a justifiable reason. They allege that this is done to frustrate them into giving a false statement against Republic TV for reasons best known to the officers of Mumbai Police.

Their petition request the Bombay High Court to:

• Transfer the investigation in FIR 143 of 2020 (lodged in relation to the false TRP scam) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
• Stay the Crime Branch probe in the matter
• Restrain the police from acting coercively against Hansa and its employees and to issue directions to restrain the police from issuing threats to them

The petition is likely to be heard by the court later this week.