ED Files Case Against BBC India for Alleged Foreign Exchange Violations

The case has been filed under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

This comes weeks after the BBC office in Delhi was searched by the Income Tax Department.

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The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday, 13 April, filed a case against BBC India in connection with alleged foreign exchange violations, officials said.

What are the charges? Officials said that the central agency has asked for documents and the recording of statements by certain company executives under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), news agency PTI reported.

Not the first time: This is not the first time a central agency has levelled allegations against the BBC. In February this year, the BBC office in Delhi was searched by the Income Tax Department.

The charges against the BBC were that that the profits shown by various entities of the group allegedly did not match with their scale of operations in India.

Further, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had said that taxes had not been paid on certain remittances by foreign entities.

Controversy involving Modi documentary: The searches came weeks after the BBC aired a documentary called 'India: The Modi Question.' The two-part series had criticised the role of the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the state government's handling of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The central government had used its emergency powers to ban the documentary in India and take down posts with links to it.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar had also slammed the British broadcaster, saying that the timing of the documentary was not accidental and that it was a part of a narrative being built by foreign media about India.

(With inputs from PTI.)