Indian film director Mahmood Farooqui, who co-directed the 2010 satirical comedy Peeple Live, has been convicted of raping an American researcher, by a special fast track court in Delhi.
He was accused of raping a 30-year-old research scholar from Columbia University at his home in South Delhi on 28th March 2015.
The complaint said that the victim first met the Indian film director in Varanasi where she was researching on Baba Gorakhnath.
She told the Police that she later met Farooqui in Delhi to seek his help with her research where she was forced to have oral sex with him.
The woman told a friend about this ordeal immediately after getting out of Farooqui’s place. The friend was a key prosecution witness besides numerous texts and emails sent by Farooqui sent later on to ‘apologise’ for his conduct.
The email exchanges and call details proved to be corroborative evidence presented by the prosecution during the trial.
Victim’s lawyer Vrinda Grover was quoted saying, “The amendment to the criminal law in 2013 introduced forced oral sex. This is perhaps one of the first cases of forced oral sex, which shows two things: that there was a crime for which we did not earlier have an offence named — now it has been recognised as rape. We’re also very happy to see that the court relied on very credible evidence that the woman gave.”
The complainant told the court that she “did not resist” the rape because she feared she would be killed like the victim of the December 16, 2012 Delhi gangrape.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain found Farooqui guilty and ordered that he be taken into judicial custody, The Indian Express reported.
The court will hear arguments on sentencing on August 2.
