SC rejects plea of US woman who accused Peepli Live director Mahmood Farooqui of raping her

The Supreme Court on Friday, January 19, upheld the acquittal of Peepli Live director Mahmood Farooqui, who was accused of raping a US researcher. The woman had filed a plea with the apex court against the acquittal of Farooqui by the Delhi High Court.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswar Rao dismissed the US citizen's plea saying it would not interfere with the high court's "well-written judgment", according to PTI.

The Delhi HC had in 2017 acquitted Farooqui of rape charges. The verdict came after a fast-track court in 2016 sentenced Farooqui to seven years in jail in the rape case. He challenged the judgment at the high court, which acquitted him of all the charges in September 2017.

The HC had made some observations in the case, which included raising questions over whether there was consent during sex. 

"Instances of woman behaviour are not unknown that a feeble 'no' may mean a 'yes'," the court was quoted by a News 18 report as saying. It added: "It is difficult to decipher whether little or no resistance and a feeble 'no' was actually a denial of consent."

Farooqui and the US researcher were known to each other, and had even got intimate before the incident in question, the court had noted.

Raising doubts at the delay in filing the FIR on the part of the woman, the court had even said that the lady had feigned an orgasm during the sexual act and thus, "the appellant had no opportunity to know that there was an element of fear in the mind of the prosecutrix forcing her to go along."

The woman in her statement had said Farooqui in a drunken state raped her at his Sukhdev Vihar residence in Delhi on March 28, 2015. She was apparently in touch with the film-maker with regard to her research work.