Peepli Live filmmaker gets 7 years for rape

NEW DELHI: Bollywood film Peepli Live co-director Mahmood Farooqui was on Thursday sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a Delhi court for raping a US researcher

NEW DELHI: Bollywood film Peepli Live co-director Mahmood Farooqui was on Thursday sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a Delhi court for raping a US researcher here last year.

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Additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain awarded the minimum jail term prescribed for the offence to Farooqui. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the filmmaker and said the amount be given to the victim, failing which he would have to undergo 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 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.

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 Farooqui, complainant’s counsel Vrinda Grover had said, “The foreigner (victim) was here for research work but was raped by a person she knew, who was her friend and whom she had trusted”.

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

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