After much speculation, BBC, a UK-based public-service broadcaster, has released the much-talked about documentary, India’s Daughter, on YouTube.
Banned in India, the documentary focuses on the rape case of Jyoti Singh, who was brutally beaten and raped in Delhi in 2012.
The documentary made its way to the World Wide Web on March 5, while BBC was in high hopes of releasing the video on television for Women’s Day (March 8).
But one of the convicts of the rape and murder case, Mukesh Singh’s, lack of remorse and despicable comments faced a heavy protest in India which led to the ban of the documentary.
In the documentary, which highlights the aftermath of the event, the notorious convict claimed that his victim was to blame for her brutal sexual assault and murder.
In an interview from jail, Mukesh Singh said that 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 said.
In the interview for the documentary, directed by Leslee Udwin, Mukesh also claimed that had Jyoti and her friend not tried to fight back, the gang would not have inflicted the savage beating, which led her to die from her injuries two weeks later.
Describing the killing as an "accident," he said: "When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy."
Such comments prompted outrage across India, and India's home minister said he would investigate how a film crew managed to interview a death row convict who expressed no remorse for his part in the fatal gang rape.
The British filmmaker, who worked on the film for two years and was inspired to make it after watching thousands of people take to the streets across India in protest over the 2012 rape, said it would be released worldwide as planned.
India toughened its anti-rape laws in response to the outcry following the 2012 attack, but a rape is still reported on average every 21 minutes in India, and acid attacks, domestic violence and molestation are common.
Jyoti Singh, 23, was returning from an evening at the cinema with a male friend when the six-strong gang offered them a lift in a mini-bus they were driving.
She was raped and frenziedly beaten with iron bars, prompting widespread demonstrations for Indian women to have greater protection from sexual violence.
Four men including Mukesh were sentenced to death for the crime, but their execution was later stayed on appeal by India's Supreme Court.
One of the defendants hanged himself in prison, while another, who was under 18 at the time, got three years in juvenile detention.