A video of an argument between the tax department official and employees of the BBC at the latter's office has emerged on social media.
In the video the IT-department official can be seen angrily introducing himself first and then asking people to keep away their phones. The man in conversation with the official seems to have asked for an ID from the official who then produces it. In the background a lady's voice is heard who asks the government official to use a better tone and not shout on them.
The angry official asks why they were not opening the gates for ten minutes. He is also asked to show a warrant which he claims to have purportedly produced on the gates. The lady asks to show a warrant and he says that he has done the needful and questions them as to why they were not opening the gates for the past ten minutes. The video purportedly belongs from the Delhi office of BBC.
The BBC's offices are located on Kasturba Gandhi Marg in Delhi and Santacruz in Mumbai. The searches come amid the uproar over a documentary about Prime Minister Modi.
Watch video here:
Modi documentary row
After a massive furor over the documentary in the country, the Indian government condemned the BBC Panorama programme, which has not been screened in India, as a propaganda piece with a questionable agenda behind it. Last month, the BBC defended its controversial series as a “rigorously researched” documentary that sought to highlight important issues.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking a blanket ban on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in India, calling the petition “completely misconceived."
