Rajnath summons Tihar DG over BBC interview of rapist

DG Alok Kumar Verma is said to have briefed Home Minister on how permission was granted for the interview

Following the storm created over the BBC interview of December 16 gangrape convict Mukesh Singh, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today summoned Director General of Tihar Jail, where the documentary was shot.

DG Alok Kumar Verma is understood to have briefed the Home Minister on details about how the permission was granted to interview the convict and how it had taken place.

Official sources said during their ten-minute meeting, Verma also conveyed to the Home Minister about various aspects of the jail manuals and the procedures of meeting an inmate by an outsider.

Earlier, the Home Minister made identical statements in both Houses of Parliament about circumstances leading to taking of the interview by a British film-maker and the action taken by the government to stop its telecast.

The Home Minister said an investigation has been ordered on how the permission was granted to interview Mukesh in July 2013 and also to fix the responsibility.

In the interview, Mukesh Singh, who was given the death sentence for the brutal rape and murder of the 23-year-old girl, said the women who went out at night had only themselves to blame if they attracted the attention of gangs of male molesters.

"A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he had said.