NEW DELHI —
Indian tax officials searched the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai for a third straight day Thursday seeking information about the broadcaster’s business operations amid allegations of tax evasion, as opposition political parties and other news organizations criticized the move as an attempt to intimidate the media.
Some BBC news staff members were questioned overnight, but the tax officials Thursday restricted themselves to the company’s business executives and their offices, said some staff members who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s critics questioned the timing of the searches, which came weeks after the BBC aired a documentary in Britain critical of Modi.
Kanchan Gupta, an advisor to India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry, said there was no connection between the two.
“Whether you are a media organization or you are a manufacturer, the purpose of tax laws apply equally to everybody. And if you are found in violation of those tax laws, the appropriate action is taken as the due process of law,” Gupta said in an interview with the Mirror Now news channel.
The Indian tax department has not issued any statement on what prompted the searches of the BBC offices, which began Tuesday morning.
Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster said Tuesday that it was cooperating fully with Indian authorities and hoped “to have this situation resolved as soon as possible.”
“Many staff [have] now left the building but some have been asked to remain and are continuing to cooperate with the ongoing inquiries,” the BBC said, adding: “Our output and journalism continue as normal.”
BBC management told editorial and other staff members to work from home.
The Press Trust of India news agency cited unnamed officials as saying Thursday that investigators collected financial data from some BBC staffers and made copies of electronic and paper data from the news organization.
India’s News Broadcasters and Digital Assn. criticized the searches.
While the association “maintains that no institution is above the law, it condemns any attempt to muzzle and intimidate the media and interfere with the free functioning of journalists and media organizations,” it said in a statement Wednesday.
The leader of the main opposition Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge, described the government action as an assault on freedom of the press under Modi’s government.