A section of students of Presidency University in Kolkata were denied permission by the varsity’s Vice Chancellor Anuradha Lohia on Tuesday to screen the controversial documentary India’s Daughter, students alleged.

“We had planned to screen India’s Daughter in our campus as part of the Gender Awareness Week at 4 p.m. on Wednesday followed by a panel discussion on ‘repression and reaction.’ We felt that the comments made by the convicts shown in the film needed to be seen and talked about. We received a call today [Monday] from our Vice Chancellor who told us that she had withdrawn permission to screen the film,” student Amardip Singh told The Hindu. Ms. Lohia, however, did not elaborate why she had withdrawn permission, he said. Commenting on the issue, Ms. Lohia said: “I cannot allow a film banned by the government to be screened in the campus.” It was not clear if she had granted permission initially. She said events held inside the varsity were looked after by registrar Debojyoti Konar. Denying knowledge of any such event, Mr. Konar said he had not granted permission.

India’s Daughter, made by British documentary film-maker Leslee Udwin was banned by the Centre for featuring the interview of Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts of the December 16 Delhi gang-rape case.