The chats were a part of a charge sheet filed by Mumbai police against Arnab in TRP scam case, however, there is no proof that they leaked the chats.
The chats revealed Goswani's close proximity with the Prime Minister's office and central government members. They also show Goswami’s efforts to manipulate TRPs of Republic TV. Since the chats were publicly available, Goswami faced backlash from several opposition leaders, activists, and many in the media industry.
The chats also reveal instances where Dasgupta allegedly asked Goswami to reach out to the central government for him. In one such conversation on April 4, 2019, Dasgupta asked Goswami if he can stall the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) proposal to make BARC’s viewing data public. In reply, Goswami answered ‘yes’.
After the chats were made public, advocate Prashant Bhushan alleged that they “show many conspiracies & unprecedented accesses to power in this government”. He further termed the same as “gross abuse of his media & his position as power broker”. He said, “In any Rule of law country, he would be in jail for long”.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on January 17 tweeted, claiming that the Mumbai Police leaked the chats. Chavan said, “The voluminous transcript of Mr Goswami’s chats released by Mumbai Police is deeply disturbing”. He further questioned, “who gave access to such sensitive information from national security to constitutional amendments and political appointments?”
However, even though the chats are a part of the Mumbai police charge sheet, there is no concrete evidence suggesting that Mumbai police leaked the chats. Therefore, the claim is unverifiable.
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