MUMBAI: In an ongoing investigation in a Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation racket, the Mumbai Police accessed evidence against the Republic TV in the diary of one of the accused, Indian Today has said.

According to the Mumbai Police, entries of some households were found in the diary of the accused Vishal Ved Bhandari.

It may be noted that the Mumbai Police had arrested Bhandari after he “revealed that he induced household members where BARC barometers are installed to watch Republic TV for a specific time every day for monetary consideration to increase the viewership of the said channel which resulted into TRP manipulation,” the India Today has reported.

Police had interrogated several households regarding the TRP. According to them, people said the accused Bhandari had been paying them money on a monthly basis to watch Republic TV, India Today said citing a report.

The police has recovered messages exchanged between the households regarding payments, it said.

A witness in the scam also claimed that a person had approached her in January 2019 who told her that he would be installing a barometer in her house to calculate the TRP.

According to her, she was asked to watch Republic news channel every day for two hours and that they would pay an additional Rs 400 to watch Republic news channel.

“When I said yes, they paid me Rs 400 in cash. I never used to watch Republic channel, but they offered money on a monthly basis for keeping Republic channel on and I agreed,” India Report has said.

(With inputs from India Today)