Trial in a case in which Bollywood movie 'Peepli live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui has been accused of raping an American research scholar commenced in a Delhi court on Wednesday with the recording of the statement of a police officer.
Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Ram Singh appeared before Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain as the first prosecution witness in the case and testified that he had written the FIR on the complaint filed by the American scholar.
During the hearing, the court dropped the names of two students of Farooqui who were arrayed as prosecution witnesses by police. According to police, these two witnesses had seen the victim when she was entering Farooqui's house on the date of the alleged incident. The court, however, said these two witnesses might be called to testify, if needed, during the proceedings later.
The judge also asked the director of Forensic Science laboratory (FSl) to expedite the examination of case property and submit the report at the earliest.
The film co-director raped a 30-year-old scholar pursuing a PhD from Columbia University at his residence at Sukhdev Vihar in South Delhi. Farooqui was helping her in a research project and they had met in Varanasi, the victim had alleged.
The court framed charges on Farooqui on September 2 accusing him under Section 376 (Rape) of IPC. The accused who is also the husband of screen writer Anusha Rizvi is under judicial custody since June 20.The trial will be continued on Thurday.