New Delhi: A Delhi court may pronounce its verdict tomorrow on Bollywood filmmaker Mahmood Farooqui who held guilty on charges of raping an American woman at his south Delhi residence last year. A 35-year-old American woman, student of Columbia University, who was in the city for research work for her doctoral thesis had complained and alleged that Farooqui who was an assistent director of movie 'Peepli live' had raped her on March 28 and later apologised through several e-mails exchanged between them.
Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet on June 29, alleging that Farooqui had raped the woman at his Sukhdev Vihar residence on March 28. The court had dropped the charge under section 201 (of destruction of evidence) IPC against Farooqui while framing charges against him. Farooqui has denied the allegations and submitted in the court that he was falsely implicated in the matter.
Prosecution has submitted in the court that the woman was raped by a friend she trusted so accused should be awarded maximum punishment. Prosecution has sought life imprisonment for Farooqui, stressing that the crime against the foreigner had brought “disrepute” to India. Counsel for Farooqui requested to the court that a lenient view may kindly be taken against Farooqui as he had no previous criminal record and is suffering from bipolar disorder, and had fully cooperated in the case, so he should be given a chance to reform.
He further said “My client was not a habitual offender and he did not threaten the woman at any point nor was he brutal or violent with her.” Additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain heard the arguments on behalf of Prosecution and Defense Counsel on the quantum of sentence in the matter against Farooqui who held guilty for the offence under section 376 (rape).(UNI)