NEW DELHI: Indian officials continued their raid on BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai overnight and into a second day on Wednesday.

Reports said searches of the BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai are widely seen as a response to a recent BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indian officials say the raids were part of a follow up after the BBC failed to respond to tax notices.

Dozens of employees were held in their offices for hours by officials from the income tax department on Tuesday.

“The Income Tax Authorities remain at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai. Many staff have now left the building, but some have been asked to remain and are continuing to cooperate with the ongoing enquiries,” BBC News said in a tweet late on Tuesday evening.

Officials say broadcaster being probed for tax evasion; US gives ‘muted’ reaction

Officials have said they are investigating the BBC for tax evasion, diversion of profits and non-compliance of Indian law. The BBC said they were cooperating fully with the searches.

The investigation comes just weeks after the release of a BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, which angered the government. The documentary looked at the rising tensions between Modi and India’s minority Muslim population and revisited allegations that Modi was complicit in inciting religious riots in Gujarat in 2002 which killed 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.

The government had condemned the documentary as “a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative” alleging that the “bias, the lack of objectivity, and a continuing colonial mindset, is blatantly visible”.

The BBC has said the documentary was “rigorously researched according to highest editorial standards”. It features interviews with figures from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) but the Modi government did not respond to their requests for comment.

Following the news of the raids on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the BJP did not hold back his vitriol for the BBC, calling it “the most corrupt organisation in the world”.

Numerous press bodies and opposition politicians condemned the searches. The Editors’ Guild of India said the raids were part of a wider “trend of using government agencies to intimidate or harass press organisations that are critical of government policies”.

However, the US State Department has said that it’s not yet in a position to judge whether raids on BBC offices in India violated press freedom.

In a muted response to questions about the raid, spokesperson Ned Price refered journalists to Indian authorities for comments.

“Beyond this discrete action, what I’ll say more broadly is the general point that … we support the importance of free press around the world. We continue to highlight the importance of freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief as human rights that contribute to strengthening democracies around the world,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2023