Former CEO of ratings agency Barc, Partho Dasgupta, arrested in connection with an alleged fake television ratings point (TRP) case, has been admitted to the ICU of the state-run JJ Hospital in central Mumbai, an official said on Saturday.
The news of the hospitalisation came a day after WhatsApp messages purportedly exchanged between Dasgupta and Republic TV managing director Arnab Goswami started circulating on social media.
Dasgupta, a diabetic, was rushed to the hospital from the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai after his blood sugar levels went up on Friday midnight. Dasgupta is on oxygen support, the official said.
His daughter took to Twitter to allege that he was being tortured in prison, and appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others to “save his life”.
On Saturday, Pratyusha Dasgupta, Dasgupta’s daughter, demanded that he be shifted to a reputable private hospital.
She tweeted a message titled “A helpless daughter’s anguished appeal”, tagging Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, the PMO as well as Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Pratyusha said her mother received a call around 3am on Saturday informing that her father had been brought to the hospital in an unconscious state around 1pm on Friday.
For 14 hours nobody from the family was informed because the authorities allegedly did not have their contact numbers, Pratyusha said.
Dasgupta was arrested on December 24 last year. Mumbai police told the court that Republic TV’s Goswami had allegedly bribed Dasgupta “lakhs of rupees” to ramp up the channel’s viewership.
