Tihar issues legal notice to BBC, says shorter version shown

New Delhi, Mar 5: Tihar authorities today issued a legal notice to BBC and the producers of the controversial documentary on the December 16, 2012 Delhi gangrape saying that its makers violated the conditions of permission to shoot and they should stop its broadcast.

They also said that they were shown a "shorter" version of the documentary, following which they had suggested deletion of some controversial content before broadcast but the final version was never show to them.

"They violated the terms and conditions of the permission to shoot. A shorter version of the film was shown to a screening committee in the month of June last year and after going through the movie, some changes were suggested to them.

"The convict's statements were not in good spirit and there were other suggestions which were pointed out during the screening," Tihar spokesperson Mukesh Prasad told PTI.

He also said that before the broadcast, they were supposed to show the final version to Home Ministry and Tihar and take approval.

"They were supposed to take our approval before broadcast but we were not shown the full version. We have served legal notices at two offices of BBC in New Delhi and also to the producer and co-producer of the documentary. The notice has been emailed as well as hand delivered asking them to stop the broadcast of the documentary," he said.

The filmmaker Leslee Udwin had claimed that she took permission from Home Ministry and the then Director General of Tihar jail Vimla Mehra before interviewing Mukesh in the prison for BBC.

Despite Indian government's objection, BBC went ahead to telecast the documentary on Wednesday night in the UK. The documentary was also uploaded on YouTube.

It was taken down late afternoon but not before it had gone viral on social media with multiple shares and being widely discussed. Delhi Police had on Tuesday filed an FIR and secured a court order restraining the media from airing the documentary, as a whole or in parts, which contains the interview of a convict in the gang rape case, Mukesh Singh.

Meanwhile, BBC today conveyed to the government that it has no plans to telecast the film in India in compliance with the directive.

PTI