The plea, which sought CBI probe, alleged that the film is only "outcome of fraud and conspiracy hatched by the Delhi Police, documentary maker, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and a private news channel with advocate V K Anand, who had briefly represented Mukesh during trial of the case."
The Delhi High Court on Friday sought reply from BBC and the British director of the controversial documentary on December 16 gangrape case on a plea seeking their prosecution for interviewing one of the convicts who made derogatory statement against women.
A bench of Justice Sunita Gupta also asked the Centre and Delhi police to reply on a plea of convict Mukesh, facing death penalty in the case, who claimed he was compelled by the cops to "speak the written script" prepared by documentary 'India's Daughter' director Leslee Udwin.
The plea, which sought CBI probe, alleged that the film is only "outcome of fraud and conspiracy hatched by the Delhi Police, documentary maker, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and a private news channel with advocate V K Anand, who had briefly represented Mukesh during trial of the case." The court also asked advocate Anand to give his response over the allegation raised by the convict, before April 27.
Advocate M L Sharma, appearing for Mukesh, claimed that his client was a victim of conspiracy and due to the film, he has been again fixed in the criminal scenario. The court, meanwhile, declined the counsel's request to list the matter before the same bench which recently declined an interim prayer of a law student seeking lifting of the ban on telecasting the documentary.
The counsel urged the court that Mukesh's interview, allegedly taken inside Tihar jail in New Delhi in July 2013, should not be aired. He said the trial court's March 4 ban order was "equally binding" upon the documentary director Leslee Udwin, BBC, a private news channel and all others concerned.
"Bare reading of the prohibition order (trial court), it is not limited only for India. Order is binding in rem and the respondents who are partners in the said procurement of the film, are duty bound to comply (with) it and cannot release it out of India. Releasing the said film under different title, namely 'Indian daughter' upon their channel(BBC)... and youtube.com cannot be allowed in any manner and it is illegal offence and is also a serious case of violation of the court order," the counsel said.
He also sought direction that any part of the documentary should not be used in any legal or judicial proceedings in any manner.
Mukesh in his plea has urged the court to issue direction to the authorities concerned to "seize" the entire documentary and its raw material. His counsel Sharma said the Centre should direct Delhi Police to arrest the documentary maker, BBC officials and the news channel Editor, as they were engaged in airing of Mukesh's interview. Sharma claimed that the British director had left India and edited her film.
"She (Udwin) on March 4, 2015 released it in Britain," he said, adding that "they also uploaded the said film upon internet and youtube.com. Despite prohibition order by the court, several media, print, electronic and web portal published/released the film and its contents in all over India immediate thereafter. Till today, the Centre and Delhi police have not taken any legal action against them and also did not seize footage of the film original and final," the counsel said.
The documentary director and the BBC have committed a serious crime against the petitioner, as also against the country by damaging its reputation, it said, demanding that the film be seized and those guilty prosecuted. It also blamed the Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi government failing to perform their duty and not taking any action against the film maker and the channels.
On the night of December 16, 2012, Ram Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Mukesh and a juvenile had gangraped a girl in a bus and her 28-year-old male friend, who was with her, also assaulted on board the vehicle, plying illegally. The victim's friend, a software engineer, suffered fractures in his limbs in the incident. The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at a Singapore hospital. The juvenile accused was on August 31, 2013 convicted and sentenced to three years in a reformation home, while the four others were handed down death penalty.
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