Filmmaker Mahmood Farooqui acquittal in rape case challenged in SC

NEW DELHI: Acquittal of 'Peepli Live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui in a rape case has been challenged in Supreme Court with the victim filling an appeal challenging Delhi High Court's verdict giving the "benefit of doubt" to him.
The appeal has been filed by US-based complainant who had alleged that he had oral sex with her without her consent and the appeal is likely to be taken by a bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao on Friday.

Challenging the HC verdict, the complainant said that the HC erred in acquitting the filmmaker in the case and there was sufficient evidence against him.

In controversial verdict, the HC had said "No" might not always mean no and that there were examples of "woman's behavior (where)... afeeble 'no' may mean a 'yes'" in cases of past intimacy. The 35-year-old woman had alleged that Farooqui, a writer, director and story-teller, had raped her at his Delhi home on March 28, 2015.

A fast-track court had in 2016 sentenced Farooqui to 7-year term . Quashing the trial court order, the HC found the claim of rape unreliable, noting the woman had faked an orgasm during the alleged crime, justifying it on the grounds that she feared violence similar to Nirbhaya's if she resisted. "In an act of passion, actuated by libido, there could be myriad circumstances which can surround a consent and it may not necessarily always mean yes in case of yes or no in case of no," the HC had held.

In the judgement, the high court had also taken into account factors such as past intimacy between Farooqui and the woman, noting that they had kissed twice in the past. It remains in doubt, the court said, "as to whether such an incident (the rape)... took place, and if at all it had taken place, (whether) it was without her consent, and if it was without her consent, whether the appellant could discern/understand the same."

Citing the woman's testimony in trial court, HC had noted that "physical contact with Farooqui in the nature of a kiss or a hug was being accepted by her without any protest". HC discussed how in early February 2015, the complainant met Farooqui at Hauz Khas village with a friend where he was drunk.

The HC had also noted that Farooqui's wife had read the communication between her husband and the woman and informed her that he was under a rehabilitation regime for a bipolar mental condition. The trial court, on August 4, 2016 had observed that Farooqui had taken advantage of the situation when the victim was alone in his house. The police had on June 19, 2015, lodged the FIR against Farooqui on the woman's complaint after which he was arrested. On July 29, 2015, the police had filed its chargesheet against Farooqui alleging he had raped the research scholar from Columbia University.