BBC India workplaces raided by earnings tax officers; ‘totally co-operating’ with authorities, says broadcaster

By Agencies

NEW DELHI: The officers of the Income Tax Department raided the workplaces of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the lethal sectarian riots in 2002.

The synchronised shock motion started at 11 am with I-T officers reaching the BBC workplaces in Delhi and in Mumbai. Police sealed off the New Delhi workplace, which occupies two flooring, and half a dozen officers had been stationed outdoors to stop folks from coming into or leaving. As information unfold, onlookers and media crews had been seen outdoors the BBC workplace at central Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg. In Mumbai, the workplace is in Santa Cruz.

The division is paperwork associated to the enterprise operations of the London headquartered public broadcaster and its Indian arm, they stated. The investigation is linked to worldwide taxation problems with BBC subsidiary corporations, sources stated.

According to reviews, the workers of the broadcasting company had been requested to not use their laptop techniques and telephones, together with their private ones. Reports quoting sources stated the workers working within the afternoon shift on the BBC’s Delhi workplace had been requested to do business from home, whereas these current within the workplace had been requested to depart early.

A BBC worker based mostly in New Delhi advised AFP that the tax raid was in progress and that officers had been “confiscating all phones.”

Another BBC staffer based mostly in Mumbai confirmed the broadcaster’s workplace in India’s business hub was additionally being raided.

WATCH |

An official on the scene stated: “There is government procedure happening inside the office,” declining to reveal their division. Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department couldn’t be reached for remark by AFP.

Last month, the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary alleging that Hindu nationalist Modi ordered police to show a blind eye to sectarian riots in Gujarat state, the place he was premier on the time. The violence left no less than 1,000 folks lifeless, most of them minority Muslims.

India’s authorities blocked movies and tweets sharing hyperlinks to the documentary, utilizing emergency powers underneath its data know-how legal guidelines. Government adviser Kanchan Gupta had slammed the documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”

University scholar teams later organised viewings of the documentary regardless of campus bans, defying authorities efforts to cease its unfold. Police arrested two dozen college students on the prestigious Delhi University after stopping a screening there in late January.

ALSO READ | Congress assaults Centre over Income Tax ‘survey operation’ at BBC workplaces

‘Fully cooperating’, says BBC 

Meanwhile, The BBC stated on Tuesday that it’s “fully cooperating” with the Income Tax authorities and hoped that the scenario will probably be resolved “as soon as possible.”

The UK-headquartered public broadcaster didn’t give additional particulars of what has been described as “surveys” by the I-T division. “The Income Tax Authorities are currently at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating,” a BBC spokesperson stated in a press release.

“We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible,” the spokesperson stated.

The documentary additionally triggered coordinated Indian diaspora protests at BBC workplaces throughout completely different UK cities on the finish of final month. Earlier, The UK authorities responded within the House of Commons to the protests by insisting the BBC as a media organisation was “independent in its outlet” and reiterating its dedication to enhancing ties with India.

Press freedom

Press freedom on the planet’s largest democracy has suffered throughout Modi’s tenure, rights activists say. India has fallen 10 spots to 150 out of 180 nations within the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, since he took workplace in 2014. Critical reporters, notably girls, say they’re subjected to relentless campaigns of on-line abuse.

Media shops, worldwide rights teams and overseas charities have additionally discovered themselves subjected to scrutiny by India’s tax authorities and monetary crimes investigators. Late Catholic nun Mother Teresa’s charity final yr discovered itself quickly starved of funds after the house ministry refused to resume its licence to obtain overseas donations. Amnesty International introduced it was halting operations in India after the federal government froze its financial institution accounts in 2020, following raids on its workplaces.

In 2021, Indian tax authorities raided a outstanding newspaper and a TV channel that had been essential of the federal government’s dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic, triggering accusations of intimidation.

ALSO READ | Centre claims BBC documentary on PM Modi a ‘Propaganda piece’

‘Campaign of violence’

The 2002 riots in Gujarat started after 59 Hindu pilgrims had been killed in a fireplace on a prepare. Thirty-one Muslims had been convicted of prison conspiracy and homicide over that incident. The BBC documentary cited a beforehand labeled British overseas ministry report quoting unnamed sources saying that Modi met senior cops and “ordered them not to intervene” within the anti-Muslim violence by right-wing Hindu teams that adopted.

The violence was “politically motivated” and the purpose “was to purge Muslims from Hindu areas”, the overseas ministry report stated. The “systematic campaign of violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing” and was not possible “without the climate of impunity created by the State Government… Narendra Modi is directly responsible”, it concluded.

Modi, who ran Gujarat from 2001 till his election as prime minister in 2014, was briefly topic to a journey ban by the United States over the violence. A particular investigative crew appointed by India’s Supreme Court to probe the roles of Modi and others within the violence stated in 2012 it didn’t discover any proof to prosecute the then chief minister.

(With Inputs from AFP, PTI & IANS)

NEW DELHI: The officers of the Income Tax Department raided the workplaces of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the lethal sectarian riots in 2002.

The synchronised shock motion started at 11 am with I-T officers reaching the BBC workplaces in Delhi and in Mumbai. Police sealed off the New Delhi workplace, which occupies two flooring, and half a dozen officers had been stationed outdoors to stop folks from coming into or leaving. As information unfold, onlookers and media crews had been seen outdoors the BBC workplace at central Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg. In Mumbai, the workplace is in Santa Cruz.

The division is paperwork associated to the enterprise operations of the London headquartered public broadcaster and its Indian arm, they stated. The investigation is linked to worldwide taxation problems with BBC subsidiary corporations, sources stated.

According to reviews, the workers of the broadcasting company had been requested to not use their laptop techniques and telephones, together with their private ones. Reports quoting sources stated the workers working within the afternoon shift on the BBC’s Delhi workplace had been requested to do business from home, whereas these current within the workplace had been requested to depart early.

A BBC worker based mostly in New Delhi advised AFP that the tax raid was in progress and that officers had been “confiscating all phones.”

Another BBC staffer based mostly in Mumbai confirmed the broadcaster’s workplace in India’s business hub was additionally being raided.

WATCH |

An official on the scene stated: “There is government procedure happening inside the office,” declining to reveal their division. Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department couldn’t be reached for remark by AFP.

Last month, the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary alleging that Hindu nationalist Modi ordered police to show a blind eye to sectarian riots in Gujarat state, the place he was premier on the time. The violence left no less than 1,000 folks lifeless, most of them minority Muslims.

India’s authorities blocked movies and tweets sharing hyperlinks to the documentary, utilizing emergency powers underneath its data know-how legal guidelines. Government adviser Kanchan Gupta had slammed the documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”

University scholar teams later organised viewings of the documentary regardless of campus bans, defying authorities efforts to cease its unfold. Police arrested two dozen college students on the prestigious Delhi University after stopping a screening there in late January.

ALSO READ | Congress assaults Centre over Income Tax ‘survey operation’ at BBC workplaces

‘Fully cooperating’, says BBC 

Meanwhile, The BBC stated on Tuesday that it’s “fully cooperating” with the Income Tax authorities and hoped that the scenario will probably be resolved “as soon as possible.”

The UK-headquartered public broadcaster didn’t give additional particulars of what has been described as “surveys” by the I-T division. “The Income Tax Authorities are currently at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating,” a BBC spokesperson stated in a press release.

“We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible,” the spokesperson stated.

The documentary additionally triggered coordinated Indian diaspora protests at BBC workplaces throughout completely different UK cities on the finish of final month. Earlier, The UK authorities responded within the House of Commons to the protests by insisting the BBC as a media organisation was “independent in its outlet” and reiterating its dedication to enhancing ties with India.

Press freedom

Press freedom on the planet’s largest democracy has suffered throughout Modi’s tenure, rights activists say. India has fallen 10 spots to 150 out of 180 nations within the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, since he took workplace in 2014. Critical reporters, notably girls, say they’re subjected to relentless campaigns of on-line abuse.

Media shops, worldwide rights teams and overseas charities have additionally discovered themselves subjected to scrutiny by India’s tax authorities and monetary crimes investigators. Late Catholic nun Mother Teresa’s charity final yr discovered itself quickly starved of funds after the house ministry refused to resume its licence to obtain overseas donations. Amnesty International introduced it was halting operations in India after the federal government froze its financial institution accounts in 2020, following raids on its workplaces.

In 2021, Indian tax authorities raided a outstanding newspaper and a TV channel that had been essential of the federal government’s dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic, triggering accusations of intimidation.

ALSO READ | Centre claims BBC documentary on PM Modi a ‘Propaganda piece’

‘Campaign of violence’

The 2002 riots in Gujarat started after 59 Hindu pilgrims had been killed in a fireplace on a prepare. Thirty-one Muslims had been convicted of prison conspiracy and homicide over that incident. The BBC documentary cited a beforehand labeled British overseas ministry report quoting unnamed sources saying that Modi met senior cops and “ordered them not to intervene” within the anti-Muslim violence by right-wing Hindu teams that adopted.

The violence was “politically motivated” and the purpose “was to purge Muslims from Hindu areas”, the overseas ministry report stated. The “systematic campaign of violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing” and was not possible “without the climate of impunity created by the State Government… Narendra Modi is directly responsible”, it concluded.

Modi, who ran Gujarat from 2001 till his election as prime minister in 2014, was briefly topic to a journey ban by the United States over the violence. A particular investigative crew appointed by India’s Supreme Court to probe the roles of Modi and others within the violence stated in 2012 it didn’t discover any proof to prosecute the then chief minister.

(With Inputs from AFP, PTI & IANS)