India freezes bank accounts of China's ByteDance in tax case

Indian authorities have reportedly blocked bank accounts of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, for alleged tax evasion, prompting the company to ask a court to quash the directive which it feared would hurt its operations.

A two-judge bench at the High Court in Mumbai heard the plea of a ByteDance counsel who said the company was "bleeding" and needed funds to pay staff salaries and rent, but the court gave no relief.

After hearing objections from a government counsel, the court said the case will next be heard on April 6.

While TikTok amassed hundreds of millions of users in India, it lost all of these after border tensions between India and China in 2020 were followed by authorities banning the app in India over "national security" concerns.