By Nikunj Ohri and Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s financial crime fighting agency has fined British broadcaster BBC 314,510 pounds ($397,980) for alleged foreign exchange violations in the South Asian nation, three government sources told Reuters.
The agency, India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), opened an investigation into the BBC in April 2023 under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, two months after tax authorities searched the broadcaster’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai.
The ED conducts investigations into suspected contraventions of India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act and can “adjudicate and impose penalties” on those found guilty, according to its website.
The BBC, which launched a new company for Indian language services in December 2023, was issued a show-cause notice earlier that year for failing to reduce foreign ownership in the company to the permitted limit of 26%, the sources said.
As a result, the broadcaster has been fined 314,510 pounds, along with a fine for every day since October 15, 2021 for violations.
Additionally, three directors of the company have each been fined 104,836 pounds for their roles in overseeing operations during the period of contravention, the sources added.
The BBC said it had not received a so-called adjudication order yet. “We will carefully review any order when it is received and consider next steps as appropriate,” the BBC said in a statement.
The tax raids in February 2023 followed the release of a BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership of the state of Gujarat during riots in 2002. At least 1,000 people were killed in the riots, most of them Muslims.
The Indian government had in 2023 dismissed the documentary as “propaganda”, blocked its airing and also barred sharing of any clips via social media in the country.
Modi has denied accusations that he did not do enough to stop the riots, and was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court.
($1 = 0.7903 pounds)
(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri and Aditya Kalra, writing by Tanvi Mehta; editing by David Evans)
