NEW DELHI (AP) 鈥� Officials from India鈥檚 Income Tax Department searched the BBC鈥檚 offices in New Delhi on Tuesday, weeks after the British broadcaster released a , three members of its staff said.
The employees asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Teams from the tax department searched the BBC鈥檚 offices in both New Delhi and Mumbai, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, quoting unidentified officials. They said the department is looking at documents related to the BBC's business operations and those related to its Indian arm.
Indian tax authorities declined to comment. The BBC was not immediately available to comment.
Last month, the BBC broadcast a documentary in the U.K. titled 鈥淚ndia: The Modi Question鈥� that examined Modi's role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the western state of Gujarat, where he was chief minister at the time. More than 1,000 people were killed.
Modi has denied allegations that authorities under his watch allowed and even encouraged the bloodshed, and the Supreme Court said it found no evidence to prosecute him. Last year, the court dismissed a petition filed by a Muslim victim questioning Modi鈥檚 exoneration.
The second portion of the two-part documentary 鈥渆xamines the track record of Narendra Modi鈥檚 government following his re-election in 2019,鈥� according to the film鈥檚 description on the BBC website.
The Indian government banned the documentary and authorities scrambled to halt screenings and restrict clips of it on social media in a move that critics and political opponents decried as an assault on press freedom.
The government invoked emergency powers under its information technology laws to block the program. Twitter and YouTube complied with government requests and removed many links to the documentary.
India鈥檚 Foreign Ministry at the time called the documentary a 鈥減ropaganda piece designed to push a particularly discredited narrative鈥� that lacked objectivity. Many lawmakers from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party criticized the program as an attack on India's sovereignty.
The BBC said in a statement at the time that the documentary was 鈥渞igorously researched鈥� and involved a wide range of voices and opinions.
鈥淲e offered the Indian Government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series 鈥� it declined to respond,鈥� the statement said.
Last week, Hindu right-wing nationalists petitioned the Supreme Court for a complete ban on the BBC in the wake of the program. The court dismissed their plea, calling it 鈥渁bsolutely meritless.鈥�
The search of the BBC's offices is 鈥渦ndemocratic鈥� and 鈥渞eeks of desperation and shows that the Modi government is scared of criticism,鈥� tweeted K.C. Venugopal, general secretary of the opposition Congress party. 鈥淲e condemn these intimidation tactics in the harshest terms.鈥�
In recent years, India鈥檚 Muslim minority has been at the receiving end of violence from Hindu nationalists emboldened by a prime minister who has said little about such attacks since he was first elected in 2014.
Human Rights Watch said earlier that the banning of the documentary reflects a broader crackdown on minorities under the Modi government, which the rights group said has frequently invoked draconian laws to muzzle criticism.
Krutika Pathi, The Associated Press
