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 Pictures

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Sajjad Hussain/AFP through Getty Pictures

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 Pictures

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

The searches got here weeks after the BBC aired a two-part documentary collection important of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. India: The Modi Query examined Modi’s position 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 Courtroom to ban the BBC in India. The Supreme Courtroom dismissed it.

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

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

Final yr, India fell to 150 out of 180 international locations surveyed by Reporters With out Borders in its annual Press Freedom Index, its lowest rank ever.