Hours after the Mumbai Police held a press conference on a 'false TRP racket' by some television channels, noted industrialist Rajiv Bajaj said that his company Bajaj Auto has blacklisted three channels for advertisements. In a conversation with CNBC TV18, Bajaj said that his company’s brand has never associated with anything that they thought was toxic to the society. Rajiv Bajaj is the Managing Director of Bajaj Auto.

“A strong brand is a foundation on which you build a strong business. At the of the day the purpose of a strong business is to also contribute to the society… Our brand has never associated with anything we feel is a source of toxicity in the society,” Bajaj told the business channel. However, he didn’t name the channels.

“Out teams can spot channels and newspapers that are toxic and hate mongering  in the society and we can’t find it in ourselves to continue to be supportive of such a medium no matter what repercussions it may have on the business,” he added.

On Thursday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh said in a press conference that three Mumbai-based channels – Republic, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema – have been found to be manipulating and paying households to show higher television rating points (TRPs). 

The owners of the two Marathi channels have been arrested, the Mumbai Police told the media during the press conference.

What followed was a war of words and trading of allegations by Republic and different channels, with Republic TV's founder Arnab Goswami challenging the Commissioner to arrest him. The channel also issued a statement refuting all allegations and asked the Commissioner to apologise and said that the Republic TV will file criminal defamation case against him. The channel claimed that he made false allegations against the channel because Republic TV questioned him in the Sushant Singh Rajput case investigation.