Ex-CEO of BARC Partho Dasgupta, arrested in TRP scam, hospitalised

Partho Dasgupta, a former CEO ofTV ratings agency BARC who was arrested in the TelevisionRating Points (TRP) rigging case, has been admitted to the ICUof a hospital here after his sugar level shot up, officialssaid on Saturday.

His daughter took to Twitter to allege that he wastortured in prison, and appealed to Prime Minister NarendraModi and others to `save his life'.

Dasgupta, a diabetic, was rushed to the state-run J JHospital here from the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbaiaround mid-night after his blood sugar levels shot up, aprison official said.

He was admitted to the ICU and was on oxygen support,the official said.

Dasgupta, former CEO of Broadcast Audience ResearchCouncil (BARC) was arrested in the alleged TRP rigging scamby crime branch of the Mumbai Police on December 24 last year.

A Mumbai court had earlier this month rejected hisbail plea, stating that he appeared to have played a vitalrole in the scam to rig TRP as per the police's case.

The Mumbai Police had earlier told the court thatRepublic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami had allegedly bribedDasgupta with ''lakhs of rupees'' to ramp up the news channel'sviewership numbers fradulently.

On Saturday, Pratyusha Dasgupta, Dasgupta's daugther,demanded that he be shifted to a reputed private hospital.

She tweeted a message titled ''A helpless daughter'sanguished appeal'', tagging PM Modi, Union home minister AmitShah, the PMO as well as Maharashtra chief minister UddhavThackeray.

Her mother received a call around 3 am on Saturdayinforming that her father had been brought to the hospital inunconscious state around 1 pm on Friday, she said.

For 14 hours nobody from the family was informed aboutDasgupta's condition because the authorities allegedly did not have their contact numbers, Pratyusha said.

When they reached the hospital, they found he wasunable to speak, she said.

It was apparent that he had been ''physically andmentally tortured inside the jail'', she alleged.