Ex-BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta Granted Bail

Broadcast Audience Research Council's (BARC) former CEO Partho Dasgupta, an accused in the alleged Television Rating points (TRP) rigging scam was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on Tuesday.

Justice P D Naik granted bail to Mr Dasgupta, 55, on a personal bond of ₹ 2 lakh and two solvent sureties of the same amount.

"The bail plea is allowed. The applicant (Dasgupta) shall be released on bail after furnishing a personal bond of ₹ 2 lakh and two sureties of the same amount," the High Court said.

The court allowed him to furnish a temporary cash surety of the same amount for a period of six weeks, until which he would have to submit the solvent sureties. He also surrendered his passport to the police station concerned and not leave India without permission of the trial court, a PTI report said.

"The applicant shall attend the police station concerned on the first Saturday of each month for a period of six months. After that, he shall appear once in three months," it said.

He was arrested on December 24 last year and is in jail since then.

Dasgupta is accused of having misused his official position and conniving with ARG Outlier Media, the company which runs all Republic TV channels, and with Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, to manipulate TRPs.

On January 16, Mr Dasgupta was rushed to the state-run J J Hospital from the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, after his blood sugar levels went up and he fell unconscious. He was admitted to the ICU of the J J Hospital and was discharged on January 22. Following his discharge, his lawyers had moved the High Court seeking an urgent hearing of his bail plea, the report added.