Former CEO of rating agency BARC arrested in TRP scam

MUMBAI: The crime branch of Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested a former CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) from Pune district in the fake TRP scam, an official said.

Partho Dasgupta, the accused, is the fifteenth person to be arrested in the case related to alleged rigging of Television Rating Points (TRP) by some TV channels.

He was arrested by Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) from the jurisdiction of Rajgad Police Station in Pune district and will be produced before a court here on Friday, the official said.


Earlier, the CIU had arrested former chief operating officer (COO) of BARC Ramil Ramgarhia in the case, among others.

Mumbai police began the probe after the BARC, a rating agency, filed a complaint about rigging of TRP by some channels.

TRP, measured by recording viewership data at sample households, is crucial as it helps TV channels attract advertisers.

It was alleged that some of these households were being bribed to tune into certain channels to ramp up their TRP.