March 4: The BBC was due to broadcast India's Daughter at 10pm on Wednesday (3.30am IST, Thursday), having brought transmission forward from Sunday night.

A spokesperson told The Telegraph in London: "The BBC was never due to broadcast the documentary in India, or indeed in any other country other than the UK."

He also issued a prepared statement: "This harrowing documentary, made with the full support and co-operation of the victim's parents, provides a revealing insight into a horrific crime that sent shock waves around the world and led to protests across India demanding changes in attitudes towards women.

"The film handles the issue responsibly and we are confident the programme fully complies with our editorial guidelines," it went on.

(The girl's father said that when he spoke to the filmmaker, he was under the impression that she was a journalist and he did not know that his interview would be used for the documentary project.)

"The BBC will broadcast Storyville - India's Daughter, in the UK on BBC Four. The documentary has the backing of a number of other public service broadcasters, however the BBC is only responsible for transmission of the film in the UK."

"Given the intense level of interest in the Storyville film, we have brought transmission forward to enable viewers to see this incredibly powerful documentary at the earliest opportunity," the statement added.

It is understood that seven other overseas broadcasters are interested in buying the film for broadcasts in their respective territories.

Not too many people watch BBC 4. But the furore over the documentary has drawn the world's attention to it.

A Delhi magistrate had yesterday ruled that the interview "shall not be uploaded, transmitted/ published" till further orders. A Delhi court's restraint order cannot be enforced beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the country.

Indian courts have certain inherent powers to deal with an offence by a person who is not a citizen of the country. But the powers can be invoked outside the country only if the offence is committed on a ship or an aircraft registered in India. 

In Delhi, perhaps unaware that the BBC broadcast is confined to the UK, several officials of the information and broadcasting ministry said during the day that the BBC would be "blacked out" for 30 days in India if it went ahead with the telecast.

NDTV was scheduled to telecast the film but the court

bar will be applicable to the Indian channel. Officials at NDTV were not available for comment despite repeated attempts to contact them.

Journalist Dibang, who co-produced the documentary directed by Leslee Udwin, said: "NDTV had provided us 15 minutes' footage of the protests that had erupted following the December 16 gang rape and in exchange we offered to show our documentary on their channel ahead of any other country."

Udwin, a British citizen, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "intervene".

"India should be embracing this film - not blocking it with a knee-jerk hysteria without even seeing it. This was an opportunity for India to continue to show the world how much has changed since this heinous crime. Sadly... the banning of the film will see India isolated in the eyes of the world. It's a counterproductive move," she said in a statement today. "Whoever is behind this - please see the film and then come to a conclusion."

Permission

The Centre is crying foul over the interview but the Union home ministry had given permission to the documentary maker to interview the convict in 2013.

In a letter dated July 27, 2013, Suresh Kumar, a joint secretary in the home ministry, wrote: "The ministry has no objection to the proposal, provided written consent is obtained from each of the convicts interviewed."

The letter was addressed to the then director-general of Tihar, Vimla Mehra. Udwin and the BBC had written to Mehra in May 2013 requesting permission to interview Mukesh inside the jail.

A couple of weeks later, Mehra had informed the home ministry of Udwin's letter, to which the joint secretary sent the reply.

The BBC and Udwin got permission from Mukesh and his family and submitted the consent letter to then Tihar director-general.

Home minister Rajnath Singh today asked Delhi police to probe the role of the then jail officials and some home ministry officials to verify whether all rules were followed.

One alleged transgression that has been cited is that the jail manual does not allow interviews of inmates to be video-graphed. "It is a violation of jail norms as the matter was still sub judice when the interview was taken," said a police officer.

The government said some other conditions were also violated. The conditions included showing "complete unedited footage of the shoot" to the jail authorities to ensure there is no breach of prison security. "It came to the notice of the jail authorities that the permission conditions have been violated and hence a legal notice was issued to them on April 7, 2014, to return the unedited footage within 15 days and also not to show the film as it violates the permission conditions," the home minister told Parliament in a statement today in response to an uproar.

Subsequently, the documentary was shown to jail authorities where it was noticed that the film depicted the comments of the convict which are highly derogatory and "are an affront to the dignity of women", the home minister said.

Rajnath said it was noticed that an edited version was shown. Hence, the filmmakers were requested to provide a copy of the unedited shoot for further review and were asked not to release/screen the documentary till approved.

Additional reporting by Nishit Dholabhai