The offices of the British channel were searched by the tax authorities in New Delhi and Bombay, a few weeks after the dissemination of a documentary-shoc on the Prime Minister.
By Carole Dieterich (Correspondence, New Delhi)
The tax authorities raid is in all respects to reprisals. The BBC premises in New Delhi and Bombay were the targets on Tuesday, February 14 and Wednesday, February 15, of a search, just a few weeks after the release of a critical documentary with regard to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
According to several employees of the British channel in New Delhi, the descent started shortly before noon on Tuesday. “The agents burst into the premises. They asked us to leave our computers and not to use our phones, explains, under the guise of anonymity, a journalist present in the premises. They said he was ‘acted with a simple investigation and not a search strictly speaking, but it is an understatement. “
The tax agents sifted through the content of the computers of the employees of the BBC administrative services, but also of journalists. “They proceeded in keywords, looking for terms like” tax “or” dirty money “,” says the journalist, finally authorized to leave the premises around 6:30 p.m., once his computer exam. The research was still in progress on Wednesday morning.
The British channel confirmed on Twitter that the tax authorities were in its offices and added that it was fully cooperating with them. Contacted on several occasions by MO12345lemonde as to the object of this visit, the incoming tax of departure did not follow up.
Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party, BJP) of Narendra Modi, estimated, at a press conference, that, if the BBC had nothing to blame, She had nothing to fear. Then, he embarked on a violent attack on the British diffuser, accusing him of being “corrupt”, of indulging in “anti-Indian propaganda” and he described his coverage as “venomous”. According to him, these raids are legal and the moment chosen would have nothing to do with the government.
“If these were really tax conformity problems, then why spend thirty minutes to attack the BBC so petty?” Remends Abhinandan Sekhri, Newslaundry co -founder, an information site that has , in the past, was also the victim of similar descents of the tax authorities.
“Intimide” the press
At the end of January, the BBC broadcast A two -part documentary, India. The Modi Question , which dissects the xenophobic policy of the Hindu nationalist leader since his accession to power in Gujarat, his political stronghold, in the west of the country. The documentary claims that Narendra Modi had ordered the police not to intervene in anti -Muslim pogroms which left up to 2,000 dead, in 2002, in this state.
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