‘Will continue to report without fear or favour’

As India's income tax department concluded its three-day "survey" at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai on Thursday night, the international broadcaster said it would continue to report "without fear or favour".

"The income tax authorities have left our offices in Delhi and Mumbai. We will continue to cooperate with the authorities and hope matters are resolved as soon as possible," the BBC said in a Twitter post, adding that it will "continue to report without fear of favour".

It further said that some of its staff have "faced lengthy questioning" and had to "stay overnight".

The "survey" operation had begun at the BBC offices around 11:30am on Tuesday and ended just after 10:00pm on Thursday.

Tax authorities have made an inventory of the available stock, recorded the statement of some staffers and taken away some documents as part of the survey relating to the BBC's international taxation and transfer of profits.

According to the sources, as reported by NDTV, mobile phones of BBC's senior employees have been cloned and several desktops and laptops have been scanned during the operation. The laptops and phones were later handed back to the officials.

Director of BBC World Service Liliane Landor earlier asked all its staff to stay off all social media platforms.

Meanwhile, the Indian authorities said the "survey" revealed that despite substantial consumption of content in various Indian languages (apart from English), the income/profits shown by various  entities of the British broadcaster are "not commensurate" with the scale of operations in India, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

During the survey, the Income Tax Department gathered evidence which indicates that tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group, said the Indian finance ministry in a statement.

"Further, the survey has also thrown up several discrepancies and inconsistencies with regard to transfer pricing documentation..." it read.  

"Even though the Department exercised due care to record statements of only key personnel, it was observed that dilatory tactics were employed including in the context of producing documents/agreements sought," said the ministry statement.

The survey operation was conducted after the BBC aired a documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riot in the United Kingdom, criticising the role of the then chief minister of the state Narendra Modi.

Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says the two issues -- Modi's role in the 2002 riots and tax inspectors' survey on the broadcaster's offices -- are not connected, but rights groups say the BBC raids this week show the parlous state of press freedom in the world's biggest democracy.

News outlets that publish unfavourable reporting find themselves targeted with legal action, while journalists critical of the government are harassed and even imprisoned, reports AFP.

The three-day lockdown of the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai is the latest of several similar "search and survey" operations against media houses.

"Unfortunately, this is becoming a trend, there is no shying away from that," Kunal Majumdar of the Committee to Protect Journalists told AFP.

At least four Indian outlets that had critically reported on the government were raided by tax officers or financial crimes investigators in the past two years, he said.

India has fallen 10 spots to 150th on the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, since Modi took office in 2014.