Parthodas Gupta
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta who is accused in the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam case.
The court granted the bail on a personal bond of ₹ 2 lakh and two solvent sureties of the same amount. The court also allowed him time of six weeks for submitting the solvent sureties, and in the meanwhile to furnish temporary cash surety of the same amount for six weeks..
Dasgupta was denied bail by a sessions court and in January this year, he approached the high court. The sessions court had observed that Dasgupta played a vital role in the scam and appeared to be "the mastermind" of the scam.
However, Dasgupta has denied any wrongdoing. He was arrested on December 24 last year. Police investigating the rigging of TRPs have accused Dasgupta of exploiting his position for conniving with the owner of the media house to manipulate TRPs.
Earlier this year, Mumbai Police accused several television news channels of tampering with TRPs, and claimed that they have busted a TRP manipulation racket following a probe initiated after a complaint by TV viewership measurement agency BARC.