IT raids BBC office in Delhi and Mumbai

Days after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) carried out a feature against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Gujarati riots, the reaction has come in the form of raids. The Income Tax department has held raids at BBC offices in Mumbai and Delhi on Tuesday morning.

From the media reports, over 100 employees, who were working at the Delhi bureau office have been held back. The media reports also inform that the IT officials have seized the phones and laptops of the BBC employees. In Mumbai, BBC has two offices, one in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) area and the other in Khar. At the Khar office, BBC has asked the employees to return to their homes.

An IT official who refused to be named, stated that there were allegations of irregularities in international taxation and transfer pricing. The official added that this is not a raid but a survey. and the officials are scrutinizing the documents pertaining to the business operations of the BBC.

“It’s a survey operation, which is carried out under provisions of section 133A of the Income Tax Act, 1961,” added the IT official. The IT department asked the BBC’s finance department for details of balance sheets and accounts. Reacting to the survey by the IT department, the BBC in a statement said that they are handling the situation.

The raid/survey on BBC took a political turn with Congress, BRS adding that this is vendetta.