The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a case against news broadcaster BBC India under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for alleged irregularities in foreign funding, reported news agency PTI.
The ED has also called for documents and the recording of statements of some company executives under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), said officials.
The probe is essentially looking at purported foreign direct investment (FDI) violations by the company.
The case comes months after the Income Tax department’s ‘survey’ for three days at BBC India offices in New Delhi and Mumbai in February this year. The I-T operations had begun to probe issues related to international taxation and transfer pricing of BBC subsidiary companies.
After the “survey” operations ended after three days, the income and profits shown by various BBC group entities are “not commensurate” with the scale of their operations in India and tax has not been paid on certain remittances by its foreign entities, the income tax authorities had said.
The action against the British broadcaster was initiated less than a month after BBC released a two-part documentary titled ‘India: The Modi Question’ on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging his involvement in the 2002 riots.
The Indian government called it a “propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative”.