NEW DELHI: The UPA-led Home Ministry gave permission within two days to British film-maker Leslee Udwin to shoot a documentary on rape convicts inside Tihar Jail without realizing she would be interviewing one of the rape convicts of the high-profile Nirbhaya gang-rape case . Worse, jail authorities did not realize till six months after the interview was shot under their surveillance that accused Mukesh had made abhorring comments about the victim.Highly placed government sources said that a “series of such goof-ups and negligence” exercised in the previous political dispensation has now provoked a “maximalist approach” by the Rajnath Singh-led Home Ministry in the matter as steps have been taken to ban the screening of the documentary world-wide by BBC on March 8 and on the Internet, and strong legal action will be taken against Udwin. “I am stunned how the permission was granted for the interview of the convict inside Tihar Jail in the first place,” Singh said on Wednesday in Parliament, promising a thorough probe to fix the responsibility.Pursual of the documents in question reveals the Ministry was clueless that Udwin would be interviewing the Nirbhaya case convicts. “This concerns the request of Leslee Udwin for entering the Tihar Jail to interview some convicts intimated by your letter dated July 22. The Ministry has no objection to the proposal provided informed written consent is obtained from each of the convicts interviewed,” said a letter written by Home Ministry Joint Secretary S. Suresh Kumar to Tihar Director General Vimla Mehra on July 24, 2013. This letter does not specify if the Nirbhaya case convicts were to be interviewed.Singh’s statement in Parliament also indicates the government was not aware of the documentary being filmed on the high-profile case. “A No Objection Certificate (NOC) to shoot the documentary featuring interview of convicted inmates in Tihar Jail was given by MHA on July 24, 2013,” Singh said. ET has learnt that the file was disposed off at the level of the Joint Secretary with intimation to then home secretary Anil Goswami given the ‘general nature’ of the file and it never reached the table of then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde . Shinde on Wednesday said he “never sanctioned” such permission.The Tihar jail subsequently gave the permissions on the condition that their “prior approval” will be taken for releasing the documentary film “which is being made purely for social purposes without any commercial interest as conveyed” and the “unedited footage” be shown to them, said Singh. The documentary was shot in November 2013 after Nirbhaya case convict Mukesh gave a written permission for his interview. In February, 2014, Udwin informed Tihar of selling rights of the documentary to BBC – which government says is a violation as the documentary was not for commercial interests.On April 7, 2014, Tihar jail issued a legal notice to Udwin asking her to return the unedited tapes and not show the film as “it violates the permission conditions,” as per Singh. The ‘edited’ film was subsequently shown to jail authorities in May – when it seems for the first time, “it was noticed that the film depicts comments of the convict which are highly derogatory and an affront to the dignity of women,” as per Singh’s statement. Then DG of Tihar, Vimla Mehra, is in the dock now as to why Tihar jail authorities did not realize this when the interview was shot six months ago under their surveillance.Udwin is accused of not coming back to Tihar Jail authorities subsequently with the “unedited footage” for an approval before its screening by the BBC.