Mumbai Police arrests Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani

Mumbai Police has arrested Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani in the fake TRP case. He is the 13 person to be arrested so far, reportedly a day ahead of his anticipatory bail hearing. Prior to this, Ghanshyam Singh, Republic’s Head of Distribution was named in the charge sheet.

Khanchandani was arrested by the Mumbai Police on Sunday morning in the alleged TRP scam case being investigated by the Mumbai Police in which Republic TV has been implicated.

The Police submitted before the court that Republic network in order to increase their Television Rating Points (TRP) allegedly carried out transactions amounting to Rs. 15 lakhs a month in order to ensure that more viewers watch their channels - Republic TV (English) and Republic Bharat (Hindi).

The fake TRP case broke out in October when Nitin Deokar, a Hansa employee filed a complaint, stating that certain TV channels were manipulating viewership numbers by paying certain bar-o-meter households.