Mumbai
Hyper-nationalist Indian news channel Republic TV has been accused of paying households to manipulate ratings and using that advantage to gain advertisement revenues, Mumbai Police officials said Thursday.
Police arrested two persons over the allegations. According to Indian media outlet NDTV, one of the persons is a former employee of the news channel who used to install “people meters” in homes to assess ratings.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said that officials of Republic TV will be summoned to record their version of the events either on Thursday or Friday.
The police commissioner said that the analysis on the manipulation of news trends came into focus after it was revealed how a “false narrative” had spread following the death of Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput.—AP