BBC documentary row: Income Tax survey at the BBC office in Delhi

New Delhi: The Income Tax Department on Tuesday conducted a survey operation at the BBC's offices in Delhi and Mumbai as part of a tax evasion investigation, officials said.

The surprise action comes weeks after the broadcaster aired a two-part BBC documentary on PM Modi, the 2002 Gujarat riots and India.

The department is looking at documents related to the business operations of the company and those related to its Indian arm, they said.

Also read: Does part-2 of BBC documentary on PM Modi establish Amnesty’s agenda?

As part of a survey, the Income Tax Department only covers the business premises of a company and does not raid residences and other locations of its promoters or directors.

Hearing a PIL filed by N Ram and Prashant Bhushan on February 3, the Supreme Court directed the central government to produce original records relating to its decision to block a BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The plea challenged the decision of the secretary, information and broadcasting ministry, to ban it.

The impugned directions were issued under Rule 16 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 to Twitter India to block 50 tweets with links to YouTube videos of the BBC documentary.