BBC Income Tax Raid: Delhi and Mumbai offices of BBC sealed

The Income Tax Department team has reached the Mumbai and Delhi offices of BBC regarding the investigation of rigging in international taxes. The BBC office is being surveyed by IT. IT is reported to have sealed the BBC office for investigation. Congress criticised the central government on this matter and called it an undeclared emergency.

According to the information, BBC is accused of irregularities in international tax. For this, a team of 60 to 70 people from the IT department is involved in the survey. IT is said to have switched off the phones of BBC staff during the survey. Along with this, anyone has been stopped from coming and going in the campus. Most of the staff have been asked to go home and the office has been sealed.

Regarding the survey on BBC offices, the Congress tweeted from its official Twitter handle that first the BBC documentary came, it was banned. Now IT has raided the BBC. This is an undeclared emergency. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that here we are demanding JPC in Adani’s case and there the government is after the BBC, Vinash Kale Viprit Buddhi.

Officials from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) have confirmed that officials are present at the BBC’s Delhi office. The officials said, ‘This is a survey, not a raid.’ Another official said that based on the inputs of some irregularities, some cases related to the BBC are being investigated. Surveys are conducted to find out these irregularities. It will be clear only after the survey whether the irregularities were done intentionally or not.

After the survey, the Income Tax Department will examine the financial documents of BBC and prepare a report and forward it to the concerned authority. If any irregularities are found, a formal inquiry will be initiated. The team of officers reached the office at Kasturba Gandhi Marg at around 11.20 am.

It is noteworthy that in a petition filed in the Supreme Court, there was a demand to ban the work of BBC in India. The petition was dismissed by the apex court on Friday. A bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice MM Sundresh had said that the court cannot impose censorship. The petitioner had also demanded an NIA probe.

Before this, a documentary by BBC created a lot of din in the country. The Government of India called it a ‘propaganda piece’. Also, its telecast was banned in January. After this, a huge controversy had arisen from the road to the Parliament. Many parties including Trinamool Congress, Congress raised questions against the ban on broadcasting. At the same time, there was a situation of tension in many educational institutions including Jawaharlal Nehru University located in the capital Delhi on the performance of the documentary.