A police officer stands on the entrance of the workplace constructing the place Indian tax authorities raided BBC’s workplace in New Delhi on February 14, 2023

Sajjad Hussain/AFP through Getty Images

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Sajjad Hussain/AFP through Getty Images

A police officer stands on the entrance of the workplace constructing the place Indian tax authorities raided BBC’s workplace in New Delhi on February 14, 2023

Sajjad Hussain/AFP through Getty Images

More than a dozen Indian Income Tax officers entered the BBC workplaces in Delhi and Mumbai Tuesday morning seizing accounts, monetary paperwork, and telephones of BBC staff. They informed those that had not but come into the workplace to remain dwelling. More than a 100 staff have been within the workplaces on the time.

The searches got here weeks after the BBC aired a two-part documentary sequence crucial of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. India: The Modi Question examined Modi’s function in anti-Muslim raids that killed lots of in his dwelling state of Gujarat in 2002.

Modi’s authorities banned it from being proven inside India and compelled social media firms like Twitter and YouTube to take down clips utilizing emergency legal guidelines.

After the documentary aired, a Hindu nationalist group petitioned the nation’s Supreme Court to ban the BBC in India. The Supreme Court dismissed it.

A spokesperson for Modi’s celebration held a information convention and informed the media that the BBC was “rubbish” and alleged that it was “corrupt.”

The BBC says it is “fully cooperating” with Indian authorities.

Last 12 months, India fell to 150 out of 180 international locations surveyed by Reporters Without Borders in its annual Press Freedom Index, its lowest rank ever.