[3] In India, two electronic methods are there for calculating TRP: In October 2020, a complaint was filed with the Mumbai Police accusing some channels of fraudulently inflating their viewership ratings.
[4] The police alleged that the channel inflated its ratings by bribing low-income individuals, including people who did not comprehend English, to keep their televisions turned on and tuned to Republic TV.
[16] Bombay High Court directed TV Today Network to Pay 5 lakh fine, or face coercive steps by BARC Disciplinary Council (BDC).
Plea states that the petitioners are continuously held at the Crime Branch for long hours and threatened with arrest and are repeatedly pressed to make a false statement.
The purported WhatsApp conversations between the two, which are a component of the charge-sheet submitted by the police in the court, reveal conspicuously discernible misuse of official position by Partho Dasgupta to avail his "friend" Arnab Goswami.
[24][25] These WhatsApp conversations have gone viral on gregarious media with people expressing shock and dismay at the alleged connivance between Partho Dasgupta and Arnab Goswami to manipulate the system.
Additionally, the alleged claims made by Arnab Goswami over his reach and influence with the regime and his conspicuously discernible misuse of this to further his business fascinates have evoked vigorous reactions on social media and in the political spectrum.