MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian tax officers searched the BBC’s bureaus in New Delhi and Mumbai for a second day on Wednesday, the NDTV channel reported, as controversy swirled over a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in deadly riots two decades ago.
Weeks earlier the government banned the documentary that focused on the Hindu nationalist leader during his time as chief minister of Gujarat when Hindu-Muslim violence erupted in 2002.
At least 1,000 people were killed in the riots, most of them Muslims, though activists put the toll at more than twice that number.
The government last month dismissed the documentary, “India: The Modi Question”, and blocked its streaming and sharing on social media. The foreign ministry said the British broadcaster’s documentary was meant to push a “discredited narrative”, was biased, lacked objectivity and showed a “continuing colonial mindset”.
The BBC has stood by its reporting for the documentary and said on Tuesday it was cooperating with Indian tax officials, and hoped to have the situation “resolved as soon as possible”.
The tax officers had remained at the Delhi bureau late on Tuesday, the BBC said, and some staff had been asked to stay there while many others had left.
(This story has been refiled to remove a word from the headline)
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Shri Navaratnam & Simon Cameron-Moore)
