1st LD Writethru: BBC documentary on rapist in India spirals into national scandal

The controversial documentary made by the BBC which included an interview with one of the 2012 Delhi gang rape convicts has spiraled into a national scandal in India, with the opposition Wednesday demanding government to explain who allowed the interview to be conducted inside a death row cell in a Delhi jail.

India's Upper House of Parliament, or Rajya Sabha, adjourned briefly Wednesday following uproar with opposition parties demanding for action against Tihar Jail authorities for allowing interview by the BBC.

Meanwhile, police have secured a court injunction blocking the broadcast of the interview. The Delhi court order also prevents publication of the interview, which has triggered outrage in India. The government has taken a serious view of the matter and sought an explanation from Tihar Jail authorities, where the rapist is being jailed, for allowing the interview. The Delhi police also registered a criminal case against the filmmaking.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Wednesday he was taking the matter "seriously" and had spoken to the Tihar jail director- general to demand an urgent report.

"We urge the Indian media not to show it. Police moving chief metropolitan magistrate's court today to seek restrain from airing of the show," Delhi Police chief B.S. Bassi said.

Some women's rights groups have urged the TV channels not to broadcast the documentary.

The Delhi gang rape saw six men raping a 23-year-old medical student in a moving bus in December 2012. The victim later died of internal injuries.

The parents of the Dec. 16, 2012 gang-rape victim reacted angrily to the remarks made by the rapist, Mukesh Singh, in the interview where he seeks to blame their daughter for the horrific incident, calling it shameful and demanded he be hanged immediately.

Singh, who was sentenced to death by a Delhi court in 2013 along with three other rapists, said in the interview for "India's Daughter," a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Sunday that girls are equally responsible for rape as boys. He also blamed girls for roaming around at 9 o'clock at night to lure men to rape them, according to some leaked contents.

The British filmmaker, Leslee Udwin, said the film is her attempt to examine the attitude of men towards women and that there was nothing sensational in it.

Udwin also claimed that she took permission from the then director general of Tihar Jail Vimla Mehra before interviewing Mukesh in the prison for BBC. Endi