India opens new probe into BBC

India's financial crime-fighting agency has opened an investigation into alleged violations of foreign exchange rules by the BBC, a source told Reuters yesterday, months after tax officials searched the broadcaster's Mumbai and Delhi offices.

The tax raids in February had come close on the heels of 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 latest investigation is being conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under India's Foreign Exchange Management Act. The agency issued a notice to the BBC in March and questioned some employees earlier this month, said the source, who declined to be named citing the sensitivity of the matter.

British Foreign Minister James Cleverly, during a visit to New Delhi in March, raised the BBC tax searches with his Indian counterpart.

Relations between India and Britain, who are working to seal a delayed free-trade agreement, have also been strained by protests outside the Indian High Commission in London last month.