The BBC announced that their bureaus in New Delhi and Mumbai were raided by India’s Income Tax Department (ITD) officials. However, Asia News International (ANI) contacted the ITD and reported that the visit to the BBC offices was only a “limited survey action” to check certain of the BBC financial aspects, and was not a “raid.” India’s NDTV reported that the tax officials carried out the “survey” due to allegations of international taxation and transfer pricing irregularities involving the broadcaster.
The BBC claimed that the critical video they released on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi several weeks ago may be the reason that the ITD is on their case. New Delhi had dismissed the video as propaganda, and last month, the Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had said that BBC had attempted to push a “discredited narrative.” He accused the BBC of bias, lack of objectivity, and of having a “colonial mindset.”
