'India's Daughter': Delhi High Court refuses to prosecute director Leslee Udwin, BBC

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court ON Monday refused to pass an order for prosecution of BBC and the British director of the controversial documentary on December 16 gangrape case, saying that a PIL is already pending before another bench in which the same issue has been raised.

A bench of Justice AK Pathak said that it cannot pass any order on the plea as a bench headed by Chief Justice G Rohini is already seized of the identical issue.

The request in this regard was made by a death row convict Mukesh through his advocate, who was asked to decide whether he wanted to withdraw or pursue the matter. "How can we order prosecution or seizure of the material which is lying/staying in UK/abroad?" the court said in its oral observation.

Read: Leslie Udwin says banning Nirbhaya documentary 'international suicide' for India

The convict has also raised the issue of asking the authorities to "seize" the entire documentary and its raw material. The court also suggested the convict's counsel to file an application before the division bench.

Mukesh has claimed that he was compelled by the police to "speak the written script" prepared by documentary India's Daughter director Leslee Udwin.

Central government's standing counsel Monika Arora, who was appearing for Ministry of Home Affairs, also opposed the plea, saying a similar matter is pending and will be heard on August 5 by the Chief Justice's bench.

Read: Delhi gangrape documentary: Leslee Udwin denies she broke any contract

The court has fixed the matter for August 28.

The plea, which sought a CBI probe, alleged that the film is only "outcome of fraud and conspiracy hatched by the Delhi Police, the 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.