BY E-MAIL/HAND DELIVERY/POST

23 October 2020

Mr. Param Bir Singh (IPS)

Commissioner of Police, Mumbai
Office of the Commissioner of Police,
4th Floor, New Administrative Building,
LT Marg, Mumbai- 400 001.

Dear Mr. Singh,

Re: Notice seeking unconditional apology and compensation for defaming ARG Outlier Media Pvt.
Ltd. and Mr. Arnab Goswami through various statements made by you on 8 October 2020

We are concerned for our clients, ARG Outlier Media Private Limited and its Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Arnab
Goswami (our client/s) and are instructed to issue this Notice as under:

1. Our client, Mr. Goswami is the Editor-in-chief of the Republic Media Network. Led by Mr.
Goswami, Republic Media Network presently operates two channels namely Republic TV in
English and Republic Bharat in Hindi, and a digital platform - Republic World. He is also the
Managing Director of ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd. The news network which was founded by Mr.
Goswami, beams to over 250 million viewers across the country, in English and Hindi. The
network also has viewers across the globe including in the UK, the Middle East, the North Africa
Region, Canada, Singapore and Australia.

2. Mr. Goswami is among one of the most prestigious names in the news industry and has over 20
years of experience. Prior to launching Republic TV in May 2017, he launched Bennett, Coleman
and Company Limited’s Times Now, a 24x7 English news channel, in 2006. Within a year of
launching Times Now, Mr. Goswami led his news team to the number 1 viewership position in
the English news genre. He is an award-winning news anchor who has also won the Ramnath
Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (TV) in 2008.

3. Mr. Goswami commands immense respect and goodwill in the media fraternity, and is the
current President of the governing board of the News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), which is
India’s largest association of over 78 news channels from every region of the country.

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4. Mr. Goswami has been at the forefront of crucial public campaigns, including the 2G Scam, the
Coalgate Scam, the Anna Movement, the Commonwealth Games Scam, the Muzaffarpur Shelter
Home Case, the Lalitgate Scandal and the Kargil for Profit scam. In 2014, ahead of the General
election, Mr. Arnab Goswami was the only journalist to interview both Rahul Gandhi and
Narendra Modi. In 2019, Mr. Goswami got Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first pre-general
election interview. Mr. Goswami has also interviewed global public personalities including Julian
Assange, Benjamin Netanyahu and Thomas Friedman. He has built his work, professionalism
and journalistic endeavours with a high degree of credibility.

5. Mr. Goswami is highly respected not just in the field of journalism but also academia. He has
been a Visiting Fellow at the International Studies Department at Sidney Sussex College,
Cambridge University. He has also written a book titled “Combating Terrorism: The Legal
Challenge”. Mr. Goswami got his Masters in Social Anthropology from St Antony’s College,
Oxford University in 1994. He received the Felix Scholarship, a scholarship for having been an
outstanding student from India to pursue graduate studies at the University of Oxford.

6. Our client, ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd., owns and operates among others the all-too popular
and leading news channels, R. Bharat and Republic TV. Both are names to reckon with among
news channels in India and abroad. The above reflects the goodwill generated by our client, Mr.
Goswami through years of hard work, dedication and utter professionalism and in building ARG
Outlier Media Private Limited into a commercially and professionally successful media venture.

7. On 8 October 2020, you conducted a press conference (Press Conference) referring to a First
Information Report relating to an alleged Television Rating Points (TRP) scam. The FIR (being
FIR DCB C.R. No. 843 of 2020; FIR) was registered on 6 October 2020 under sections 409, 420,
120-B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 at the Kandivali Police Station, Mumbai (later
transferred to the Crime Intelligence Unit, DCB, CID, Crime Branch, Mumbai). The FIR had been
registered on the basis of a complaint by one Hansa Research.

8. Within merely two days of the FIR, you made the following statements, among others, during
the Press Conference:

…there is a new racket which the Mumbai police crime branch has unearthed. This
racket is about false TRPs.

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 …Till now from the information that we have gathered, there are 3 channels whose
names have come up. Two are small channels, one is 'Fakt marathi' and other is 'Box
cinema'. I repeat 'Fakt marathi' and 'Box cinema', their owners have been arrested.

The charges that were filed on basis of the complaint of BARC and Hansa were of
criminal breach of trust and cheating under section 409 and 420 of IPC. The
complainant was from Hansa that works for BARC. The analytical report which BARC
has submitted, in that the name of 'Republic TV' has come up, in which suspicious
trends of TRPs have been seen. When we questioned some customers who were
manipulated, they admitted that they were given money to watch these channels.
We have noted such people's statements in which they have confirmed so. Further
probe is underway. As I told you, owners of Fakt Marathi and Box cinema have been
arrested. Now, as per the findings, there is a chance of the involvement of Republic
TV staff, it's promoters or directors in this. Further investigation is being carried out
against them.
…
…The advertisers who gave the money on the basis of manipulated TRP, they will also
be questioned to ascertain whether they were complicit in this fraud or are a victim of
it. Some people were playing with the advertisers and the entire TV industry. The entire
TRP system was being manipulated. On the basis of the probe that we have done till
now, name of three channels have come up. The biggest name is of Republic.

…Like I just told you that at this time we have already arrested 2 people. First, we
arrested 2 people, who were the owners of the 2 smaller channels in questions. Then,
the third big identity that has come forward which is Republic TV, out of it the
members who are involved with the manipulation and criminal breach of trust and
cheating, an investigation is underway on them.

9. Therefore, at the Press Conference, your statements gave the unmistakable impression to the
public at large that our client, ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd. and its promoters and directors, which
includes our client, Mr. Goswami, were involved in the alleged TRP scam being investigated
pursuant to the FIR. Your reference to "biggest name" and "big identity" in the context of
Republic TV at the Press Conference, portrayed our clients as being central to the alleged TRP
scam. Once you achieved this objective of showing our clients as somehow being at the center
of the TRP scam, you then went on a spree of giving selective interviews (Interviews) to various

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other news channels on the same day (i.e. 8 October 2020) to reinforce the message to the
public. Some of your statements made at these Interviews are illustrated below:

(a) Interview to India Today:

(i) When questioned on whether the Mumbai Police is targeting Republic TV based
on an agenda, you said: "Everyone knows who was doing agenda-driven journalism.
How a section was driving an agenda to defame the Mumbai Police, to spoil the
image of Mumbai Police in the public”. Your statements betrayed the sense of
personal vendetta you carried against our clients and explains why you dragged
our clients into the alleged TRP scam without cause.

(ii) "Republic, its ratings showed suspicious movement as well. When we contacted
these households, when we got them for questioning they said they were given
money to keep Republic Television on in their house."

(iii) "…BARC also identified some suspicious patterns, some suspicious trends, in the
viewership of certain channels. So some channels were identified by BARC. And in
BARC, there is a big channel, Republic, it's ratings showed suspicious movement as
well. When we contacted these households, when we got them for questioning they
said they were given money to keep Republic Television on in their house, whether
they are at home or not. In fact, it also emerged that some of these people were
not well read and yet they were watching the English channel, Republic, so they
were giving money to get TRP manipulated. Here breach of trust and cheating two
non-bailable sections have been included as under 409 and 420 of the IPC. Our
crime branch is investigating this."

(iv) When questioned on the strength of the evidence against Republic TV and Arnab
Goswami, you asserted that “BARC gave us some suspicious patterns of TRP. BARC
gave it about Republic. Then there are witnesses who were given money to increase
TRP and watch the channel.”

(b) Interview to Zee TV:

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 (i) "Following our investigation it emerged that 2 small channels Faqt Marathi and Box
Cinema, who were involved in this activity, manipulating TRP using the barometers.
And, when it was further investigated, then it also emerged that Republic Channel
is also indulging in this type of TRP manipulation. BARC in it's analytical report has
stated that Republic TV displayed suspicious trends."

(ii) "If one channel commits fraud and makes gains, it is also causing loss to other
channels, it is at the cost of other channel TRP can be gained. So there was one
undue beneficiary, and one was facing undue loss. All channels, even channels like
yours face loss because of this false TRP racket. So in this way they generated false
TRPs to increase TRP. The three channels that I named. And thereby, they generated
revenue for advertisement. This revenue generated will be considered proceeds of
crime."

(iii) “Definitely, we will investigate the bank accounts, we will investigate whether to
cease or freeze after. The advertisers, what do they have to say about this, will also
be questioned, whether they knew about it or whether they were manipulated.
Whether they were shown wrong figures and whether they are victims. They will
also be called and questioned. And, in the channels, the three channels named, who
is the person answerable for this, that will also be investigated. They will be
summoned. In Republic channel as well, people at which level are involved, they will
definitely be investigated.” These statements were clearly designed to intimidate
and discourage advertisers from carrying out business with our clients as they
would otherwise risk being investigated as well.

(c) Interview to India TV:

(i) "The third big name was that of Republic TV. That they were working with Republic
Television and doing TRP manipulation. And to raise TRP, some... some suspicious
trends were noticed by BARC vis-a-vis Republic TV’s viewership. And they gave
names of some households where this suspicious viewership was seen. (--) We
called in those from the suspicious households. They confirmed that money was
given to put this specific television on whether they were home or not, whether they
know English or not, that they should keep this channel on. Manipulation was done

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 in those households where the barometer was kept. It was done for TRP
manipulation."

(ii) "Like I said, the ex-employees of HANSA had the full list that they procured before
leaving their job. They took this list and sold it to these channels so that these
channels could manipulate the TRP."

(d) Interview to CNN IBN:

(i) "So the TRPs directly translate into revenues, the advertisers pay the channels on
the basis of TRPs and if the TRP is higher, the rates are higher and they get more
revenues and when TRPs are manipulated to increase the revenue, obviously
somebody is a loser. That somebody is either is an advertiser or it is other channels.
Because TRP ratings of only one channel can go up at the cost of other channels so
that is basically the case so extra revenue which was earned by manipulating the
TRPs, that is the proceeds of the crime, that is the subject if the investigation and
three names of three channels came so far during the investigation -- Two were
very small channels Fakt Marthi and Box cinema, the owners of these two channels
have been taken into custody today and the third was that of Republic Television
where we have started investigation, some witnesses have come forward and they
have given their statements that they were paid monthly amounts to keep the
Republic television channel playing on their TV while they were at home, while they
were not at home for which they were being paid certain amounts every month. So
it was a manipulation of TRPs by manipulating these households so that their TRPs
go high."

(ii) On being questioned on whether the BARC's alleged report named our clients for
the alleged fraudulent practices, you stated that "BARC has definitely shared some
report with us which shows some manipulations".

(e) Interview to Times Now:

(i) "So advertisers were also being taken for a ride by showing higher TRPs, this is the
complaint we received from BARC and in further investigation certain households
were identified, certain channels were identified. And, two of those channels were

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 small channels -Fakt Marathi and one was a small channel called Box Cinema. The
owners of those two channels have been arrested today. The third channel which
was named was Republic Television and also some households were named,
identified by the agency where suspicious viewing was seen by them. We called
some of these households for investigation and there they said yes, they were
taking monies to watch certain channels, to watch Republic Television. Their
statements have been recorded and as I said we are getting good evidence in this
case and already BARC has identified certain suspicious viewership in viewing of
Republic Television and now certain statements have also been recorded."

(f) Interview to NDTV: When asked by the anchor on what was the core of the evidence
available with you against our clients, you stated:

"The investigation will go on for a few months. At least 2-3 months. The law
gives us 3 months to investigate such a case. The investigation has only started
3-4 days ago. So far, we have got evidence from BARC about suspicious patterns,
We have arrested... WE have not arrested, we have called 3 witnesses who were
paid money to watch a channel. They have given their statement. Other
evidence is being collected. And we will investigate professionally. Investigation
is the process of collecting evidence. As and when we have sufficient evidence
we shall prosecute those who are accused in the chargesheet."

The above statement is telling because by your own admission there was insufficient
evidence available with you at the time of the interview but you nonetheless had
slandered our clients and defamed them by portraying them as being central to the TRP
scam, despite there being no ground for you to even refer to them in regards this FIR.

10. Please note that the above statements are extracts and illustrative only, with emphasis supplied
by us. Our clients reserve the right to rely upon any other extracts/statements made by you
during the Press Conference and the Interviews or on any other occasion as may be appropriate
and necessary at a later stage.

11. Each person has a right to have his reputation safeguarded untouched. This privilege of
reputation is recognized as a natural individual right of each individual. It is a jus in rem and
enforceable against the whole world. Mr. Arnab Goswami, our client has spent over 2 decades

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 in his profession. His integrity is his wealth, and remains more precious than any other wealth.
His reputation and credibility are the brand Republic Media Network is founded on. Your Press
Conference, Interviews and innuendos intended to subject our client, Mr. Arnab Goswami to
doubts and speculation. They intended to injure him in his profession, question his credibility,
cause him to be ostracised, and cause him disrepute in society.

12. It is also worth noting that once you had portrayed our clients as being central to the alleged
TRP scam, everything else you said about this scam would automatically be linked by the general
public including Republic TV and R. Bharat's viewers and advertisers with our clients. It is a
matter of grave concern that a person holding such a high office should misuse it along with the
platform of national television for the personal aim of extracting vendetta by spreading false
rumours and defaming our clients because their investigative journalism had sought
accountability from the Mumbai Police led by you. In this regard, it would not be out of place
to mention that your very act of going about an interview spree with various channels was
fraught with conflict because you were investigating an alleged TRP scam in which some of
those channels could potentially be involved and in fact one of which was expressly even named
in the FIR albeit you made no reference to that channel either in the Press Conference or in the
Interviews, proving the intent and purpose of the Press Conference and the Interviews was to
defame our clients and mar their credibility in the eyes of the public.

13. Your statements made at the Press Conference and in the Interviews were false, malicious and
mala fide. The statements made at the Press Conference and in the Interviews laid the
foundation for our clients to be insulted and face humiliation at various platforms and by various
other channels. Your statements were wrong, patently false and have caused immense damage
to our clients. Your statements were carried on various news channels, causing heavy injury to
our clients' reputation. Furthermore, you knew that if a Press Conference is held, and the
Interviews given, by an officer of your stature, it would be taken far more seriously by the public
at large and you therefore chose to conduct it yourself so that a sense of credibility is attached
to the false statements made by you against our client. It may not be out of place to mention
that press conferences by police personnel during investigation are deprecated by the Hon'ble
Courts as they tend to cause mischief and grave prejudice. In the present case, the Press
Conference was held by you followed by the Interviews with the singular aim of causing
prejudice to our clients by defaming them and inflicting economic harm to them.

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14. The remarks made by you at the Press Conference and the Interviews that followed have caused
utmost damage to our clients' profession and reputation. You actively tried to besmirch their
reputation in the eyes of millions of viewers, who view the Republic Media Network daily. The
fact that the allegations made by you are patently false and vicious is established by the
Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India's confirmation to Republic Media Network’s
CEO on 17 October, 2020 that if there was any disciplinary action initiated against our client,
ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd. then BARC India would have communicated it to our clients with
necessary documents for their response.

15. In complete shock and consternation, after having caused irreparable harm and injury to the
reputation of our clients, it soon emerged after the Press Conference and the Interviews that
your statements were being made against the fact that our clients were not even named
anywhere in the body of the FIR let alone as accused. On the contrary, another popular news
channel was expressly named in the FIR but you made absolutely no reference to them
whatsoever and virtually concealed the fact that it was named in the FIR.

16. More recently, on or about 21 October 2020, various news reports referred to the Mumbai
police stating that two more television channels have come under the scanner in the alleged
TRP scam. See for example the report at:

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/mumbai-two-more-channels-under-
scanner-for-trp-manipulation-6826584/

The police however restricted its statement to one being a Hindi news channel and the other a
Marathi entertainment channel. Unlike your Press Conference and the Interviews, no names
were revealed. This also shows the abject bias and vendetta in you throwing focus without
cause on our clients' names whereas no names have been revealed of these two channels. There
is no explanation, and cannot be, on why you chose to treat our clients on a different footing
than these channels. Your statements have adversely affected our clients' business interests
and caused irreparable loss and damage.

17. If there was any doubt that the FIR made any reference to our clients, such doubt was removed
unequivocally when at a hearing held before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in Criminal Writ
Petition Number 3143 of 2020 on 19 October 2020, statements were made on your behalf to
the Hon’ble Court that neither of our clients were named in the FIR as accused persons.

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 Furthermore, at the hearing it also became abundantly clear on account of the submissions
made on your behalf that to date there was nothing incriminating found by the police to even
add our clients as accused to the FIR.

18. Your singling out our clients in the Press Conference and the Interviews, even though reference
to them was unwarranted, was malicious on the face of it as you were seeking to extract
vengeance on account of our clients' investigative journalism that had caused discomfort to
you. The statements made at the Press Conference and the Interviews cannot be deemed to
have been made in your official capacity by any stretch. They were false, malicious and
completely baseless allegations with attendant threat of prosecution made to intimidate our
clients on grounds that are wholly untenable either factually or legally.

19. Your statements made at the Press Conference and the Interviews have brought disrepute to
our clients and defamed them. Their reputation has been lowered in the eyes of the public at
large. The falsehoods uttered are at the fulcrum of the chain of causation that led to
tremendous unfair and uncalled for questioning of our clients' credibility as a journalist and
journalistic organisation, that pursues the truth. Your statements have adversely affected our
clients economically and lead to loss of advertisement revenue. This loss of goodwill and
commercial harm is a direct result of the defamatory statements made by you against our
clients at the press conference. Our clients have built their reputation with tremendous
professionalism, by building brand recognition by breaking stories of social-economic and public
interest and have persistently ensured that all their actions are within the realm of the rule of
law. Your Press Conference and Interviews have had the effect of denting this brand reputation,
thereby alienating advertisers causing massive revenue loss that has a wide-reaching and
cascading effect on all the employees, resources and overall ability of the channel to function
in a smooth and unimpeded manner. This potential and actual loss of advertising revenue is
solely emanating from your Press Conference that was done in bad faith.

20. In view of the above, our clients state that in addition to the statements made by you at the
Press Conference and Interviews being false, vexatious, mala fide and politically motivated and
thereby gravely prejudicial to our clients, these are also ex facie defamatory and have caused
untold damage to our clients' carefully and well-nurtured reputation with years of journalistic
service to the nation. Your statements had a direct purpose to ensure the people of the country
who know and rightly recognise our clients for putting nation first, people first, news first and
truth first, have their faith in our clients eroded. The defamatory nature of your statements has

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 caused grave and irreparable harm and injustice to our clients for which you alone are
responsible.

21. Our clients have created and nurtured a long-standing global reputation of honest, dutiful and
often-times path breaking investigative reportage and have the distinguishable honor of
upholding the highest standards of ethics and journalism in India and across the world. Our
clients are one of the best-known news channels across the globe and are known around the
world as being the leaders in the television news channel business. The false and defamatory
allegations made against our clients in the statement made by you at the Press Conference and
Interviews have adversely affected the top-notch global positioning of the news channels
Republic TV and R Bharat, for which you alone are liable to compensate our clients.

22. As a result of the false, vexatious and defamatory statements made against our clients by you
at the press conference, our clients have had to issue clarifications to advertisers, collaborators
and viewers across India and the world, and have had to inform them that the statements are
nothing but a complete falsehood and are wholly without any basis in law or facts. As a
blowback to the false and defamatory allegations made by you in the statements, the
advertising revenue generated through Republic TV and R. Bharat have steeply declined and
have caused massive losses to our clients’ business, for which, you alone are guilty and liable to
compensate our clients.

23. The contents of the foregoing paragraphs make it abundantly clear that the statements made
by you at the Press Conference against our clients were false, defamatory, wild and reckless and
have been made without verifying facts and in the complete absence of any evidence in support
thereof (as alleged or at all).

24. Furthermore, various news channels and media portals made telecasts highlighting the false
allegations levelled by you at the Press Conference and the Interviews and published write ups
with a false, malicious and vindictive agenda to further a canard of lies in order to create
sensation amongst the public and create an impression that our clients in all probability are
involved in the alleged TRP scam. The fake news spread by these media organisations has had
the effect of lowering of reputation in the minds of the right-thinking members of society which
would not have taken place if the Press Conference and Interviews were not disseminated or
broadcasted or discussed. Hence, the instruments of dissemination or broadcasts or discussions

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 with their respective editors-in-chief are active contributors to the defamation of our clients.
Our clients reserve the right to take action against the other parties that defamed them.

25. In view of the above, our clients state that you have made defamatory remarks which is both a
tort as well as a criminal offence. Accordingly, our clients hereby call upon you to forthwith and,
in any event, within a period of 7 days from the receipt hereof:

(a) withdraw all allegations and aspersions made in the statements by you at the Press
Conference and the Interviews under written confirmation to us;

(b) publicly withdraw all allegations and aspersions made by you at the Press Conference and
the Interviews and tender an unconditional apology in at least six prominent Hindi and
English channels and newspapers with equal, if not more, prominence than the original
defamatory content;

(c) undertake to cease and desist from making any such defamatory statements or
insinuations against our clients in the future; and

(d) pay an amount of INR 100 crores each to our clients (aggregating INR 200 Crores) towards
compensation for the grave and irreparable loss of reputation caused to their reputation
and financial and business loss to them, and for causing mental harassment as a direct
result of the defamatory statements against our clients made by you at the Press
Conference.

26. In case of failure to comply with this notice within 7 days of receipt of this legal notice, you shall
render yourself liable to face appropriate civil as well as criminal proceedings under the relevant
provisions of law at your risk as to cost and consequences.

Please note that since our clients have filed criminal writ petition no. 3143 of 2020 before the Hon'ble
Bombay High Court challenging the FIR and seeking certain relief, nothing in this notice is or should be
construed as a waiver of any of our clients' rights in relation to this writ petition or any other pending
legal action, and this notice is without prejudice to our clients' rights and contention in relation to
them.

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Furthermore, this notice is without prejudice to our clients' rights to take appropriate action in relation
to any other instances of defamation in addition to the Press Conference and Interviews held by you
on 8 October 2020. Our clients also reserve the right to take any other action as may be available to
them under the law, including but not limited to that concerning tortious interference with our clients'
contracts with third parties such as advertisers. All of our clients' rights remain fully reserved.

Yours sincerely,

PHOENIX LEGAL

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