A Delhi court on Saturday convicted “Peepli live” co-director Mahmood Farooqui of raping a 30-year-old American researcher last year. Farooqui, who was out on bail, was taken into custody immediately after the pronouncement of the judgment.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain held Farooqui guilty of offence under the Section 376 (punishment of rape) of the IPC. The court scheduled the hearing on the quantum of punishment for August 2.
The offence of rape entails a minimum of seven years rigorous jail and a maximum of imprisonment for life.
Farooqui was present in the courtroom with his wife, film director and screenwriter Anusha Rizvi, and his friends when the judgment was pronounced.
The woman, in her complaint, had alleged that Farooqui was drunk when he raped her at his house where she had gone to get his help for her research work last year. The police had on June 19, 2015, lodged the FIR against Farooqui on the woman’s complaint after which he was arrested.
Police had on July 29 last year filed a chargesheet against Farooqui alleging that he had raped the research scholar from Colombia University at his Sukhdev Vihar house in South Delhi on March 28 last year.
The court had on September 9, 2015, started the trial in the case after framing rape charge against Farooqui.
According to the chargesheet, the woman, who reached his house at 9 pm, found Farooqui intoxicated. He asked her to go in the other room which was his office. After 20 minutes, she left the office room to smoke on the porch when he told her to come in and sit down, it said. After talking with her for a while, he suddenly kissed her and forced himself on her, the prosecution said.
During the trial, the American researcher stood by her complaint and alleged that Farooqui had raped her, while he denied the allegations, and claimed he was falsely implicated.