5th accused in TRP scam arrested in UP by Mumbai Police

Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh):The Mumbai Police's Crime Branch investigating the television rating points (TRPs) scam has arrested Vinay Tripathi, a former employee of the Hansa Research Group, from Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur district.

Tripathi, who was arrested on Monday evening, is the fifth person to be arrested in the case.

He will be produced in the local court at Mirzapur, which will take his transit remand and bring him to Mumbai on Tuesday evening.

"Tripathi was a relationship manager in Hansa and left two years ago. He was in touch with Bhandari and used to pay money to Bhandari to distribute in households where barometers were installed.

"He is part of the TRP fraud and was in contact with some owners of channels or their employees," said Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze.

Earlier, the crime branch of the Mumbai Police arrested four accused -- Vishal Bhandari, 20, former employee of Hansa; Bompalli Rao alias Sanjiv Rao, 44 (on October 6); Shirish Shetty, owner of Fakt Maratha; and Narayan Sharma of Box Cinema (on October 9).