'Peepli Live' co-director Farooqui found guilty of raping US woman

New Delhi, July 30  A court here on Saturday held Mahmood Farooqui, the co-director of the 2010 Hindi film "Peepli Live", guilty of raping an American woman.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain convicted Farooqui for rape and fixed August 2 for hearing arguments on quantum of sentence.

Farooqui, who is out on bail, was present in the courtroom with his wife, film director and screenwriter Anusha Rizvi, and his friends when the judgment was pronounced.

The court also ordered Farooqui be taken into custody.

Farooqui was accused of raping a 35-year-old woman from Columbia University who was in India for research on her doctoral thesis.

The woman who moved to Delhi in June 2014 was looking for contacts for her work in Gorakhpur and through one of her common friends, she came in contact with Farooqui.

The incident dates back to March 28, 2015 when Farooqui invited her for dinner at his house. 

According to the polish chargesheet, the woman, who reached his house at 9 p.m., found Farooqui was very intoxicated, and he asked her to go in the other room which was his office.

After 20 minutes, she left the office room to smoke on the porch when he told her to come in and sit down, it said. After talking with her for a while, he suddenly kissed her and forced himself on her, the prosecution said, adding that the woman was scared after the incident.

During the trial, the American researcher stood by her complaint and alleged that Farooqui had raped her, while he denied the allegations, and claimed he was falsely implicated.