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Activist Held For Screening Delhi Gang Rape Documentary
NEW DELHI, INDIA - DECEMBER 16: People lit candles and held solidarity marches in remembrance of the horrific December 16 Delhi gang-rape that shook the nation at the munirka bus stand where she boarded that bus on the second anniversary on December 16, 2014 in New Delhi, India. On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally gang raped and by six men, including a juvenile, in a bus. (Photo by Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
NEW DELHI, INDIA - DECEMBER 16: People lit candles and held solidarity marches in remembrance of the horrific December 16 Delhi gang-rape that shook the nation at the munirka bus stand where she boarded that bus on the second anniversary on December 16, 2014 in New Delhi, India. On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally gang raped and by six men, including a juvenile, in a bus. (Photo by Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Ketan Dixit, an activist, was arrested after he organised a screening of the banned documentary, India's Daughter, on March 8, International Women's Day. The documentary on the Delhi Gang Rape was seen by around 70 villagers in Roop Dhanu village near Agra.

AFP reported that Dixit was questioned for several hours before being released without charge by the local police. "The police official told me that he was letting me off as he did not have any document on the basis of which I could be arrested," Dixit told the newswire. "However he seized my laptop, projector, and other equipment for some investigation."

Dixit previously said his screening was a "mark of protest against the ban" and that he was ready to "face any action that was initiated against him,”

The documentary has kicked off a storm because it features an interview with one of the convicted men, who blames the victim for the brutal gang rape in a moving bus.

Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus, who is presently being held in Tihar jail in Delhi, blamed Nirbhaya for being outside home at a "late” hour. “You can’t clap with one hand--it takes two hands. A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he told BBC in an exclusive video interview. "Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good," he said.

Justifying the ban, the Indian government said that such grotesque views could spark outrage and threaten public order in the country.

TOI reported that Dixit set up a huge projector in the village, some 40 kilometres from Agra, and the villagers saw the documentary on makeshift screens made up of bedsheets. Volunteers helped the villagers to understand the English-language documentary.

"After seeing the film, I think the rapists should simply be hanged," Meera Parmar, a village resident. Deeksha, an 18-year-old, added that the film portrays the primitive and orthodox mindset of many in society. "Every woman should see it. The government should revoke the ban immediately.”

Dixit said he will also lodge a protest-petition online against the ban, HT reported. “The documentary has been telecast by BBC and is all set for release in US and in such scenario, there is no use banning

Akhilesh Bhadoriya, deputy superintendent of police in Agra, confirmed that Dixit had been arrested.

"The action was in response to the screening of this documentary which has been banned by the government. We have seized the screening equipment of Ketan Dixit and are probing the case," he told AFP.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.