New Delhi, January 19: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal filed against the acquittal of Mahmood Farooqui, co-director of Bollywood film Peepli Live, in an alleged rape case. Refusing to interfere with the Delhi High Court order, Bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao observed that the judgment was “very well reasoned and cannot be interfered with”.
On September 25, 2017, Justice Ashutosh Kumar had set aside the trial court order which had awarded a seven-year jail term to Farooqui after convicting him for the alleged rape of a 30-year-old American researcher at his south Delhi residence in March 2015.
A trial court had on August 4,2016 sent Farooqui to jail for seven years, observing that he had taken advantage of the situation when the victim was alone in his house. The court had on July 30, 2016 held Farooqui guilty of raping the woman and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.
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.
With inputs from PTI