Nirbhaya case: Jailors in Tihar did not know about rape convict interview for 6 months

NEW DELHI: The UPA-led Home Ministry had given nod to British filmmaker Leslee Udwin within two days to shoot a documentary on rape convicts inside Tihar jail without realising she would be interviewing one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape.
Worse, jail authorities did not even realise till six months after the interview that accused Mukesh had made abhorrent comments about the victim.

Highly-placed government sources said that a "series of such goofups and negligence" exercised in the previous political dispensation has now provoked a "maximalist approach" by the Rajnath Singhled Home Ministry as an FIR has been lodged and a court was approached to get a restraint on screening of the documentary in India. Strong legal action will also be taken against Udwin, ministry officials said.

"I am stunned how permission was granted for the interview of the convict inside Tihar Jail in the first place," Singh said in Parliament on Wednesday, promising a thorough probe to fix the responsibility. Perusal of the documents in question reveals the ministry was clueless that Udwin would be interviewing the Nirbhaya rape 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 that the government wasn’t 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 of at the level of the Joint Secretary with intimation to the then home secretary Anil Goswami, given the ‘general nature’ of the file, it never reached the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

The Tihar jail subsequently gave the permission 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 the BBC, which the 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.

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.