"She Later Said I Love You": Top Court Confirms "Peepli Live" Maker's Acquittal

New Delhi: Rejecting a petition challenging the acquittal of Peepli Live director Mahmood Farooqui, the Supreme Court today upheld the verdict of the Delhi High Court. "It is not a case where strangers met. It is a relationship and they were known to each other," the top court said, adding that "it's a hard case but well decided by the high court".  

Vrinda Grover, the petitioner's lawyer, argued that her client and Mr Farooqui were "good friends" and that there was no "consensual sex". 

Pointing to an email sent by the complainant to Mr Farooqui two days after the alleged rape in which she wrote "I love you", the court asked Ms Grover, "You have argued many cases. In how many cases after the incident the victim says - I love you?". The petitioner trusted his friend and they were known to each other, replied Ms Grover.

Replying to the court's query on how many times the petitioner had met Mr Farooqui and had drinks with him, Ms Grover said, "maybe twice, and on one instance they exchanged kisses".  

Refusing to interfere with the high court, a bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said, "It's a hard case but well decided by the high court".

Mr Farooqui was booked in 2015 on the complaint filed by a 30-year-old research scholar from a US-based university. The petitioner had alleged that Mr Farooqui raped her at his south Delhi residence. In 2016, a trial court convicted the filmmaker of rape and sentenced him to seven years of rigorous imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs 50,000.  

Mr Farooqui challenged the order in the Delhi High Court that acquitted him in September last year, giving him the 'benefit of doubt'. "It would be really difficult to decipher whether little or no resistance and a feeble "no" was actually a denial of consent," the high court order said.  The complainant then moved Supreme Court, saying there was enough evidence against Farooqui.