NEW DELHI (AP) — Officials from India's Income Tax department began conducting searches Tuesday at the BBC's offices in the capital, New Delhi, weeks after the British broadcaster released a controversial documentary that examined Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots.

Teams from the tax department surveyed the BBC's Delhi and Mumbai offices, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, quoting officials who were not identified.

India banned the two-part documentary “India: The Modi Question” last month and authorities scrambled to halt screenings of the program and restrict clips of it on social media in a move that critics and political opponents decried as an assault on press freedom.