Mumbai: Police in Mumbai on Sunday arrested the chief executive of a right-wing television news broadcaster on suspicion of manipulating ratings figures, escalating a clash that has roiled India’s voluble but increasingly partisan media scene.
Police said they had arrested Vikas Khanchandani, chief executive of ARG Outlier Media, at his home in Mumbai, India’s financial capital. ARG owns Republic TV, a news network that broadcasts in English and Hindi and that has jumped in the ratings with its embrace of populist causes and its sympathy toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his nationalist Hindu policies.
The authorities, which had earlier questioned Khanchandani twice, said there was enough evidence to suggest that he had direct knowledge about manipulating the ratings figures. He has not been formally charged, but investigators said they arrested him after he refused to cooperate.