TRP case: If there’s proof, why Republic TV, Arnab not named as accused, asks HC

The Bombay High Court requested the Mumbai police on Wednesday that for the reason that latter claimed to have satisfactory proof in opposition to Republic TV and its Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami within the alleged TRP rip-off, why had they not named them as accused within the case.
A bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale directed Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Shishir Hiray to tell the courtroom by Thursday whether or not the police plan to proceed in opposition to Goswami and Republic TV.
It additionally requested Hiray to inform the courtroom how a lot time had been the police prone to take to finish the investigation into the case.
“You are investigating for the last three months. There are two charge sheets, and there seems to be no evidence against them. And this FIR is of October 2020. We are in March 2021,” the HC mentioned.

“Why keep the sword hanging on their head? You are not making them an accused also, why so?” it requested.
The bench was responding to submissions made by senior advocate Ashok Mundargi, the counsel for Goswami and ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, the corporate that runs Republic TV channels.
Mundargi advised the HC that the police had named Goswami and several other workers of the ARG Outlier Media as suspects, however had no proof to cost them as accused within the case.
“They (police) cannot keep investigating forever. If they have some material against us, they have to show us, they cannot keep playing hot and cold,” Mundargi mentioned.
However, SPP Hiray mentioned the police have satisfactory proof within the case and that they’re nonetheless “collecting” extra proof.

“Then why not make them an accused? We do not think there is anything such as ‘suspect’ in criminal law,” the bench mentioned.
The courtroom mentioned the rivalry of the petitioners, Goswami and the ARG Outlier Media, was that they had been all the time underneath the worry that some motion is perhaps taken in opposition to them.
The HC will proceed listening to the arguments on Thursday.
The ARG Outlier Media and Goswami approached the HC final yr, submitting a bunch of petitions in search of a number of reliefs within the Television Rating Points (TRP) rip-off.
They alleged that the entire case was malafide and so they had been focused for Republic TV’s reportage in reference to the demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and Palghar lynching case final yr.

The Mumbai police in January this yr filed two affidavits within the case by way of Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh and ACP Shashank Sandbhor of the crime department, saying they’d not focused the Republic TV or its workers.
The police had mentioned their probe was not a results of any political vendetta and there was proof to point out that Goswami had connived with senior officers of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to rig the TRP of Republic TV.
The Republic TV has denied any wrongdoing.