India’s home minister has threatened to take action against the BBC for broadcasting a documentary about the fatal gang-rape of a woman in New Delhi, in spite of the Delhi government’s protests.

India’s Daughter was to have been shown on Sunday, International Women’s Day, in India and several other countries, until police and the government got a court order that halted the screening.

BBC4 aired the documentary, about the brutal rape in December 2012 of 23-year-old physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh, in the UK on Wednesday night, where it was watched by nearly 300,000 people.

Home ministry spokesman MA Ganapathy told AFP the Indian government had asked YouTube to block links to the film in India after large numbers of people viewed it online.

Some links to the film could still be seen in India on Thursday afternoon, but many appeared to be blocked.

YouTube Takes Down BBC Documentary About 2012 Gang Rape Following Orders From Indian Court http://t.co/3XRbgCAg8s pic.twitter.com/jklyCAWFKm — BuzzFeed India (@BuzzFeedIndia) March 5, 2015

The film has sparked a fierce debate in India because it includes an interview in which one of the convicted rapists, Mukesh Singh, blamed his victim – saying she should not have been out at night and should not have fought back.

India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, did not specify what steps the government would take against the BBC, only that “all options are open”.

Mukesh Singh, who drove the bus on which the woman was raped and murdered, appears in the film, unapologetic for his crime. He told the film-maker, Leslee Udwin: “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”

In a revealing interview, he added: “When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.”

Jyoti Singh’s father, Badri, said on Thursday that he thought everyone should be able to watch the documentary to understand “the bitter truth” about his daughter’s death.

“Everyone should watch the film,” he told the news channel NDTV. “If a man can speak like that in jail, imagine what he would say if he was walking free,” he said.

The victim’s mother, Asha, told NDTV, which was due to broadcast the film along with the BBC on Sunday, that she did not object to the ban and believed Singh’s views were widespread in India.

“I don’t care what the government does – bans the film, doesn’t ban the film – the only thing I know is that nobody is afraid,” she said. “It is not only Mukesh who thinks like this.”

The BBC defended the broadcast, which seeks to explore the crime and the cultural context in which it was committed. A spokesman said: “This harrowing documentary, made with the full support and cooperation of the victim’s parents, provides a revealing insight into a horrific crime that sent shockwaves 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. 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.”

Four of the men await the outcome of a final appeal and face the death sentence, a fifth killed himself in prison, while a juvenile convicted over the gang-rape and murder is due for release in December this year.