New Delhi, March 5: The government today succeeded in blocking videos of the BBC documentary India's Daughter from several websites, but not before tens of thousands of Indians had viewed it online.

BBC4 had released the hour-long documentary on the video-sharing portal YouTube after its telecast in Britain last night (early morning Indian time).

The documentary, featuring an interview with one of the December 2012 rapists, dominated Internet space in India today before YouTube yanked it off around 6.30pm following a notice from the government.

Delhi police had on Tuesday moved court and obtained a restraining order on the telecast of the documentary in India. The channel NDTV had been scheduled to beam it.

'We received a notice from law-enforcement agencies saying that transmission of the documentary was illegal and (it) should be removed from our website,' a YouTube spokesperson said.

'The information technology ministry had given us details of some of the URLs that needed to be taken off and we immediately complied.'

He, however, added that the documentary or parts of it might still be available through some URLs as many people tend to repost vidoes online.

'We will act as we are notified of more URLs that have the documentary,' the spokesperson said.

A government source said the Centre had also asked other Internet service providers in the country to prevent the documentary by Leslee Udwin from being viewed.

At the heart of the controversy is the interview with bus driver Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts who had duped the victim into getting on their bus and gang-raped her brutally, causing her to die of her injuries a few days later.

Many citizens and politicians have argued that airing the interview gives the man a platform to share his misogynistic views. Others have said the documentary underlines the mindsets --- shared by millions of Indians --- that lie behind such atrocities and should be viewed widely to promote soul-searching.

The documentary also features interviews with the family of the victim, the defence lawyers, senior advocates, former judges, women's activists and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

Yesterday, the Centre had slapped a notice on BBC4 for showing the documentary in Britain. Sources said the legal notice was sent on behalf of the director-general of the Tihar jail, where the interviewed rapist is lodged.

'We know that substantial damage has already been done (many Indians have seen the documentary) but it is illegal to transmit or publish any electronic content that has been banned by the government or court,' a senior official in the IT ministry said.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who had made a statement in Parliament yesterday, criticised the BBC today for releasing the documentary.

'We had asked (the broadcaster) to not release the documentary, but the BBC still released it. We will investigate and the MHA (home ministry) will take action accordingly,' Rajnath told reporters. He indicated that the BBC had breached conditions.

Home ministry officials said that Udwin, who apparently left the country yesterday, had breached her agreement with Tihar jail by failing to show prison authorities the full, unedited footage of the interview with the convict.

They alleged that the BBC had violated norms by showing the documentary despite the uproar in India.

The makers of the documentary had entered into an arrangement with NDTV in exchange for footage of the massive protests that had erupted following the gruesome gang rape.

While the documentary is scheduled for telecast in five other European countries by their respective broadcasters, it was to be beamed first in India after Britain, and by NDTV. The government has now stopped it.

Cyber law expert Pavan Duggal said that once any content becomes available online, getting it off the Internet completely becomes extremely challenging because of the jurisdiction governing the Internet and the web's intrinsic architecture.