‘Heard banging on door’: What happened inside BBC Delhi office during Income Tax ‘survey’?
1 min read 14 Feb 2023, 11:00 PM ISTThe Income Tax searches at the New Delhi BBC office came a week after the broadcaster aired a documentary critical of PM Modi. A source recalls the day the I-T officials landed at the BBC office
Premium‘It was a regular office day and then we heard a banging on the door’ is how a source recollects the abrupt visit of the Income Tax officials at the New Delhi BBC office. After a while, the BBC staff was asked to leave their phones and laptops for the rest of the day. But the ordeal had just begun.
The Income Tax department arrived at the BBC India offices in Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday to investigate an alleged tax evasion case. The searches came a week after the British public broadcaster aired a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The I-T sealed off the BBC offices, and seized the phones and laptops of the employees, confining them to an area, a source told LiveMint.
The searches at the BBC offices were linked to the British public broadcaster's "deliberate non-compliance" with the Transfer Pricing Rules and its vast diversion of profits.
Speaking with LiveMint, the source said that they could hear banging on the door before the Income-Tax officials came inside the office. “We heard some banging on the door. There was a lot of commotion and noise," the source said, adding that it was abrupt and “very confusing" for them to make sense of it.
“Laptops and mobiles were seized for 5-6 hours. They came and asked us to leave our phones and laptops on the desk and we were confined to a separate area," the source said.
Meanwhile, a purported video of an Income Tax official inside the New Delhi BBC office is doing rounds on social media. In the video, the official can be heard ordering the BBC staff to leave their phones.
WATCH
WHAT DID BBC SAY?
Earlier on Tuesday, the I-T officials arrived at BBC offices located at New Delhi's KG Marg and Mumbai's Kalina Santacruz for what they termed a “survey". The “survey" by the Income Tax officials landed at BBC India offices to probe the “deliberate" and “persistent" non-compliance of the Transfer Pricing Rules by the BBC.
In its first reaction, BBC said it was “fully cooperating" and “hopes the situation resolves as soon as possible".
“The Income Tax Authorities are currently at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating. We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible," BBC said.
