NEW DELHI: The income tax department’s marathon survey operations at the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the national capital and Mumbai have come to an end, sources said.The survey operations, which began around noon Tuesday, triggered a war of words between BJP and opposition parties.“The survey operations ended earlier this (Thursday) evening in Mumbai and signing of documents is taking time in Delhi.

The operation in Delhi is also over,” said a source in the department.

The teams have collected documents from both the offices linked to the operations.Income Tax dept surveys BBC offices in Mumbai and DelhiThe broadcaster had asked staff to cooperate with the authorities, sources said.

Only business-critical staff were allowed entry into the offices while the survey operations were on.The operation was linked possibly to tax deducted at source and foreign taxation issues, sources had pointed out earlier.Throughout the operations, tax department officials had reiterated that it was a “survey” operation and not a raid saying the department was following laid-down rules.Income Tax Department’s ‘survey’ at BBC offices ends after 3 daysThe public broadcaster had sent emails to its employees asking them to work from home and only those employees who were critical for maintaining broadcasting operations were asked to be present, sources said.

Employees were also asked to cooperate with the tax authorities and answer their queries.The I-T survey had come weeks after a controversy over a documentary by the British broadcaster on the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The foreign ministry had termed the documentary “a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative” and the Centre had asked YouTube and Twitter to block videos of the documentary.