ED Files Case Against BBC India For Forex Violations

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case against BBC India for foreign exchange violations, PTI reported quoting official sources.

ED has asked for documents and recording of statements of some company executives under provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

ED’s probe is looking at purported foreign direct investment (FDI) violations by the media company, officials said.

The Income Tax department had ‘surveyed’ BBC office premises in New Delhi and Mumbai in February, with Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) saying that the income and profits shown by various BBC group entities were “not commensurate’ with the scale of their operations in India and tax had not been paid on certain remittances by its foreign entities.

The Congress accused the BJP government of issuing an ‘undeclared emergency’, linking the raids with BBC’s documentary on PM Narendra Modi questioning the then-Gujarat CM’s role in the 2002 Godhra riots.

The Central government banned the documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ saying it was a “propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative… the bias, the lack of objectivity, and a continuing colonial mindset, is blatantly visible.”

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