Indian officials search BBC offices after Modi documentary

Officials from India’s Income Tax Department search the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, weeks after it broadcast a controversial documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the British broadcaster says.

The BBC says it was cooperating fully. “We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible,” it says in a statement.

Teams from the tax department are looking at documents related to the BBC’s business operations and its Indian arm, the Press Trust of India news agency reports, citing unidentified sources. Indian tax authorities declined to comment.

Rights groups and opposition politicians denounce the move as an intimidation tactic intended to quash the media.

The search continues “a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass press organizations that are critical of government policies or the ruling establishment,” the Editors Guild of India says in a statement.

The investigation is “undemocratic” and “reeks of desperation and shows that the Modi government is scared of criticism,” tweets K.C. Venugopal, general secretary of the opposition Congress party. “We condemn these intimidation tactics in the harshest terms.”