The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a case against BBC under Foreign Exchange Management Act for alleged irregularities in foreign funding.

The federal probe agency also called for documents and the recording of statements of some company executives under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The probe is essentially looking at purported foreign direct investment (FDI) violations by the company, they said.

The move comes in the backdrop of the Income-Tax department surveying BBC office premises in Delhi in February. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative body for the I-T department, had then said the income and profits shown by various BBC group entities were "not commensurate" with the scale of their operations in India and tax has not been paid on certain remittances by its foreign entities.

The British broadcaster landed in trouble after releasing a documentary that was critical of then chief minister Narendra Modi on the 2002 riots in Gujarat. Subsequently, BBC documentary was banned in India.

Earlier on March, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said freedom of expression is not a license for deception. These remarks were made in the Assam Assembly, which passed a resolution seeking action against the broadcaster for a "malicious and dangerous" agenda propagated through the documentary.

Taking to Twitter, the Assam CM said, "Let it be made clear in no uncertain terms that in New India there will be a democratic but proportionate response against those who profit by tarnishing Bharat’s image."

Image courtesy: Reuters