The Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday said the raids by the Income Tax Department at the office of a Hindi news channel Bharat Samachar were an act of vendetta.
While official details about the raid are still unknown, the channel said the IT officials were conducting searches at its office as well as the residences of its Editor-in-chief Brajesh Misra and State head Virendra Singh since morning.
Referring to the raids, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said they made it clear that the BJP was fully afflicted by the fear of losing the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.
“This is a sign of desperation of a losing BJP,” Mr. Yadav said. “This proves that whoever shows the truth of the oppressive rule of the anti-people BJP will be crushed.”
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said the raids at the offices of the newspaper Dainik Bhaskar and Bharat Samachar prima facie appeared of a spiteful act.
The raids bring back the dark memories” of the “Congressi Emergency of 1975,” she said. “This is extremely sad and deplorable.”
The channel in a post on Twitter said, “The more you throttle us, the louder we will speak the truth.”
