Partho Dasgupta gets bail in TRP scam case

Mumbai cops fail to specify why they need his custody

Observing that the Mumbai Police failed to specify the context for which it sought to conduct a 'face-to-face' interrogation of former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) chief Partho Dasgupta, the Bombay High Court, on Tuesday, granted him bail. This comes as a major relief for Dasgupta, who is named as one of the prime accused in the alleged TRP scam case.

A single-judge bench of Justice Prakash Naik said that it cannot allow Dasgupta to be incarcerated indefinitely or till another accused in the case is arrested and ordered his release on a surety of Rs 2 lakh.

The judge further noted that the Mumbai Police has failed to invoke any penal provision against Dasgupta and Arnab Goswami, the editor-in-chief of Republic TV, over their purported WhatsApp chats pertaining to 'sensitive' issues and national security. He also took into consideration the fact that almost all the accused in the case have been released on bail by the lower courts on the grounds that all the documentary evidence in the case was with the investigating team and charge sheets have already been filed.

Justice Naik particularly took into account the fact that another prime accused, the former chief operations officers of BARC, who named Dasgupta in his case, has already been released on bail.