TRP Scam: Challenge to proceedings against Republic TV by Mumbai Police -LIVE from Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court is hearing the petition filed by ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd. (holding company for Republic TV channels) challenging the criminal proceedings initiated against their channel and its employees in the TRP Scam case.To read an account of the hearing last Friday, click here.Live updates of the hearing feature here..Justice Shinde: Concentrate on clause 12 of chargesheet (which names Republic TV employees as suspects) because your case is confined to it… Suspect.. First, you address that, then go on other issues..Senior Advocate Ashok Mundargi will continue his submissions for Republic channel and its editor in chief, Arnab Goswami.Mundargi: This name Vikas Khanchandani (CEO of ARG Outlier).. The supplementary chargesheet. He is shown as accused. So far as our employees are concerned kindly see page 1388...Mundargi: The page at the bottom police ensured that anybody connected with Republic can be arrested at any point in time. Then they filed a supplementary chargesheet..Mundargi: Page 21 says Republic TV - Maalak, chaalak, and sambandhit vyakti. It covered each and everyone, and not necessarily restricted to any particular persons and they were shown as suspects..Mundargi: Sivasubramanian, CFO of Republic TV is listed as suspect. Shivendru K, Ranjit Walter, employees of ARG Outlier, shown as suspects. They are shown as wanted accused in the remand application of Mumbai Police.Mundargi: They have named Priya Mukharjee, COO as a suspect. And then there are remand reports of 4 people who are shown as wanted accused. Initially you can say they are suspects, but when they is chargesheet filed, they are shown as wanted accused, but in their case….Mundargi: I will not be able to confine to it. I will just say three statements. The company can be prosecuted, the principle of alter ego, and thereafter 2G scam case..Justice Shinde: you are arguing just for the company and Goswami or all employees? So as MD of Petitioner 1, will you be confining to it?.As Justice Shinde asked us on day one, how far can a company be prosecuted?.Mundargi: And now comes on page 1392, Republic TV related employees were named as suspects.. Maybe tomorrow I will point out case law on this issue..Mundargi: If there is material against any individual of the company showing his role, he can be considered as alter ego and he can only be prosecuted for his role and not otherwise..Justice Pitale: But the other side is saying there is evidence..Mundargi: IF after the other side arguments, the court comes to a conclusion that there is a company’s role in this case, then I will make submissions for that too..Mundargi: But in relation to the company....Justice Shinde: At one point you said they will face individually....Mundargi submits the principle of legal fiction can be used only when it is available in law, and according to him in IPC, such a principle is not available..Justice Shinde: If there is prima facie evidence found then you will have to show us the distinction between the company and the employees involved..Mundargi: I am trying to show the malafides just for this reason that they cannot keep the investigation open so that they can arrest anyone at any point..Justice Shinde: Now we do not know how many chargesheets will be filed..Justice Shinde: There is no provision in law where we can restrict their investigation where 6 months outer limit is given, and then we will tell them to stop investigation if nothing is found. The investigation goes on for months and the spirit of law is to be followed. .Mundargi states that if there is something against the company, then there are persons who can be held responsible. But conversely, if there is an individual who is not involved in that act, then he cannot be held responsible..Court asks Mundargi what is the kind of protection can be granted to the petitioners, considering the investigation cannot be interfered with..Justice Shinde: But you were granted protection from the beginning.. This what you are seeking is something in the future… From day one, that time itself, it was made clear that they will issue summons..Mundargi: After filing chargesheets, if you are still showing people as suspects, then it just shows that the investigation has come to a dead end. This keeping of investigation on with the fear of arrest and that the investigation may go on.. .Mundargi: Forget the other channels, I will only focus on my channel. You arrested one employee (Ghanshyam Singh), you arrested so many people, you interrogated them, you recorded statements of other persons..Mundargi: Therefore, my submission was since we are still being shown as suspects, and the investigation is not going any further, as far as we are concerned, the investigation can be quashed..Mundargi: Hence the question of Malafides comes in...Justice Shinde relies upon the judgment of Justice Khanwilkar according to which clause 12 of the chargesheet cannot exist..Mundargi: They have been investigating for so long. Whatever and from whichever sources they can get information they could have gotten.. There is no other, new source.. .Mundargi points out that the State had been relying on the chats exchanged between BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta and Arnab Goswami to point out which individuals were involved..Justice Shinde: We have always maintained that there has to be reasonability and objectivity in the investigation. If someone is suspected, then proceed against him, if not then don’t..Mundargi: And if the court finds that the investigation cannot be quashed then a judicial order may be passed to finish the investigation in a reasonable time and then the protection may be extended..Justice Shinde: But as per the IO and the State, they are in the process. But of course, they cannot continue keeping someone as suspect...Justice Pitale: Yes you are saying do not keep it open ended..Mundargi: But we cannot see in the future, just like they can’t we can’t either...Justice Pitale: When the investigation is going on and an offence has to be committed, then under the jurisdiction of the IO, he can investigate and if in a legal manner, we cannot invetsigate..Justice Shinde (to Thakare): This we are hearing as final hearing, but if you bring clarity on the time of the investigation then our time for this exercise of hearing can be saved..Justice Shinde (to Thakare): Mundargi is not saying stay the investigation, he is saying the IO can continue the investigation, but the person, the citizen should know how long will he stay under the threat of suspect..Mundargi: At the healm of affairs, we are not saying if tomorrow something happens, we cannot say do not come after us.. Of course, we cannot ask the court for this...Mundargi: Milords may kindly see the chats. That is the highest they can go...Justice Shinde: But we believe that between between the Supreme Court judgment and this case, in this case, the investigation is ongoing. .Mundargi: They are saying that petition is not maintainable because we are not accused, but we will continue to remain suspect because they feel I am suspect. And why I am suspect is so that they can come and arrest me or my employees at any time..Mundargi: Beyond that I will not argue. When they start arguing, I will request Milords to direct them to go to the origin of the chat. Some of the chats are taking out of context..Mundargi: This chat was between two friends. There is nothing, not one text, or one message, which shows that TRP manipulation was discussed. This is a chat between two friends, two close friends..Mundargi relies upon a chart which was relied upon during the hearing of the bail application of Dasgupta..Justice Pitale: As BARC CEO is he accused of tweaking TRPs in the chargesheet?.Mundargi: Yes he was an accused, he was arrested, and he was granted bail. They were good friends, from even before..Justice Pitale: This Dasgupta is an accused..Mundargi: The chats are shown out of context. .Mundargi: Yes, but there is no such discussion in the chats..Justice Pitale: So what about the privacy policies? There is no privacy then, if you can retrieve deleted chats..Chief PP says they can do that..Justice Pitale: So these chats may have been deleted. How did you retrieve deleted chats?.Chief PP Thakare: We took it from the handset. Our technical team does it. .Justice Shinde: How were the chats taken? These are WhatsApp chats?.The court asks him to read from the beginning to get a context of the conversation. Court asks him to explain the chat which discusses the LCN (Logical Channel Number)..Mundargi: I am showing from the volume only and that is precisely my submission. Mundargi proceeds to read from the chats..Justice Pitale: We will check from the volume. This seems to be only one-sided..Thakare: These were submitted to the Single judge of this court during Dasgupta’s bail hearing..Justice Shinde: so these three pages are all that is incriminating? (To Thakare) If they are not on record how can we refer to them?.Mundargi: But this discussion between two people, they are implying is a discussion on the TRP manipulation. They cannot say that just because they are friends, they would be helping each other. .Mundargi: When there is a network and I have been given a number and this is as per the provision of TRAI. This is permanent. They are saying this has been violated by me..Mundargi points out the volumne..Justice Pitale: There is a mention here of rating. Entry 27. Since we are concerned with rating want to clarify this. .Mundargi: yes..Justice Shinde: And these chats proceed in this manner only?.Mundargi: there are three volumes of these chats...Mundargi replies in 2017..Justice Pitale: And did when did Republic channel air from the first time?.Yes, November 2019 he resigned..Justice Pitale: Was he the Chairman of BARC in 2019?.Justice Pitale: Even if they were friends, of course this will have to be shown by them (State) was he may be helping his friend for manipulating TRP?.Mundargi reads out the chats and says that these were only market talks and nothing about the channel. Mundargi: This is how it goes..Justice Pitale asks Mundargi to read the chat which pertain to the message which reads “I was only helping you guys.”.Mundargi reads the specific chat from the volume..Mundargi: Their actions show that I have been treated as accused..Justice Shinde: Since you are neither suspect nor an accused, what relief can we give?.Justice Pitale: Since you are not an accused, this entire exercise is a waste of time. Day in and day out we deal with cases of the accused. But you are only suspect. They are still investigating, and they may reach a stage where they find you an accused..Mundargi: Yes he was in 2017 till November 2019..Justice Pitale: So Dasgupta was Chairman even in 2017?.Mundargi: But then our pleading is for the other employees as well..Justice Shinde: But then your petition is for the company and petitioner 2, so he is representing the company..Mundargi: They have issued summons to other employees..Mundargi: no they haven’t to the petitioner no. 2 (Arnab Goswami).Justice Shinde: Did the police ever call Goswami as per the first hearing of this case?.Mundargi: But that is not their intention. They have issued 150 summons..Justice Shinde: We will ask them why have they not issued summons for the past 3.5 months...Justice Shinde: You are not completely arguing for them, you are conveniently arguing… We have been asking you whom are you arguing for?.Mundargi points out that the other employees were arrested despite having applications in the court, like Khanchandani..Mundargi: Two are accused, and 5 are suspects. .Justice Shinde: And how many are accused? .Mundargi: And it was considered in judgments, where in IPC, there is no vicarious liability. If I am accused, I have done something for the company, first I will be liable and then the company..Mundargi: If this is the position in law, where the law creates a petition that the normal law relating to the vicarious liability would be reversed, then the company commits an offence and the persons in that company are all accused..Justice Shinde: Because the persons taken are CEO, VP, COO, etc.. .Justice Shinde: You have to show us whether the witness statements that you have read, and whatever you are pointing out shows that it all pertains to the business of the company...Mundargi: Those who are arrested and those who are suspects, there may be something to say about them. Not about others. .Justice Shinde: We are assuring that we will look into the malafides, whether the personal and political... .Justice Shinde: Mundargi, we have assured you, that we will consider the malafides. After every 10 sentences you go to malafides....Mundargi: I cannot be the alter ego for the company, the malafides here...Justice Shinde (to Thakare): There may be complicated cases when accused are abroad and you might need to travel... That we all understand... Whatever the IO feels, we are not saying 4-6 weeks...Justice Shinde (to Thakare): How much time will you take you have to take instructions. We can understand if there are absconding accused or material from other states are required. But for you the entire material is available right here... We want from every agency some time limit..Hearing ends. Court adjourns the hearing to Wednesday..Thakare: I will bring instructions and I will finish on the next day itself.

TRP Scam: Challenge to proceedings against Republic TV by Mumbai Police -LIVE from Bombay High Court

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