HC gives Peepli Live co-director clean chit on ‘benefit of doubt’
The Delhi high court on Monday cleared Peepli Live co-director Mahmood Farooqui of charges of raping a United States citizen, setting aside a lower court verdict that sentenced him to seven years in jail.
The high court quashed the rape charges giving the 44-yearold filmmaker benefit of doubt.
The Delhi Police had on June 19, 2015 lodged a first information report (FIR) against Farooqui on the complaint of the woman, an American citizen of India descent, after which he was arrested.
In its charge sheet police alleged that Farooqui, who hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, had raped the research scholar from Columbia University at his Sukhdev Vihar house in south Delhi on March 28, 2015.
The trial began on September 9, 2015 and the woman appeared in the court on September 14 to record her statement.
The sessions court on July 30, 2016 held the filmmaker guilty of rape. He was sentenced to seven years in jail and fined ₹50,000. Farooqui immediately challenged the guilty verdict in the Delhi high court.
NEW DELHI:
HISTORY OF CASE
The complainant in the case had alleged that Farooqui forced himself her during a party at his house in New Delhi in March 2015. According to the police, the complainant had approached Farooqui through a common contact for help with her thesis on Indian sects.
The woman returned to the US soon after the alleged rape and wrote an email to Farooqui, who apologised for “misbehaving” with her. She later approached the Delhi Police through diplomatic channels, returned to India and lodged a formal complaint on June 19, 2015.
Farooqui was convicted last year by a special fast track court in what was claimed to be the first rape case that recognised forced oral sex.