This Article is From Aug 05, 2016

Mahmood Farooqui, 'Peepli Live' Co-Director, Gets 7 Years In Jail For Rape

Film director Mahmood Farooqui was convicted of raping an American woman on July 30.

New Delhi: Bollywood film 'Peepli Live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui has been sentenced to seven years in jail by a Delhi court for raping an American woman last year.

Mr Farooqui, who was present in court today, was given the minimum jail sentence prescribed for the offence by Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the 44-year-old filmmaker and said the amount be given to the American woman, failing which he would have to undergo an additional imprisonment of three months.

It also tasked the Delhi Legal Service Authority to decide appropriate compensation for the woman.

The court had on July 30 held Mr Farooqui guilty of raping the American woman last year at his house in a drunken state.

During the arguments on sentence earlier, Delhi Police had sought life imprisonment for the filmmaker, saying the crime has brought "disrepute" to India.

Mr Farooqui's counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan had said as the filmmaker suffered from bipolar disorder and has fully cooperated in the case he should be given a chance to reform.

Seeking stringent punishment for Mr Farooqui, the complainant's counsel Vrinda Grover had said, "The foreigner was here for research work but was raped by a person she knew, who was her friend and whom she had trusted".

Mr Farooqui, who was out on bail, was taken into custody immediately after his conviction in the case.

Prosecutor Mohammed Ikrar had earlier said that the woman, in her complaint, had alleged that Mr Farooqui was drunk when he raped her at his house where she had gone to seek his help for her research work in March last year.

The police had on July 29 last year filed a chargesheet against Mr Farooqui, alleging he had raped the research scholar from Columbia 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 Mr Farooqui and the woman, based in the US, had appeared in the court on September 14, 2015 to record her statement.

The woman had, during the in-camera proceedings, alleged that Mr Farooqui had raped her and later apologised to her in several e-mails exchanged between them.

Later, however, Mr Farooqui had denied the allegations against him, saying he was falsely implicated by the woman.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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