Top Bollywood director is convicted of raping US student, 35, who went to India to ask for his help with research
- Mahmood Farooqui found guilty of attack in March 2015 by fast-track court
- Victim, then aged 35, travelled to India to seek Farooqui’s help with her PhD
- The incident took place at Farooqui’s home in an upscale area of New Delhi
- American woman went home but returned to India to report attack to police
Mahmood Farooqui, best known for co-directing the popular 2010 satire ‘Peepli Live’ on farmer suicides, was found guilty of the attack in March 2015 by a fast-track court hearing the case in New Delhi.
The victim, then aged 35, had travelled to India to seek Farooqui’s assistance with her research when the attack took place at his home in an upscale area of the capital.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain will now decide on the sentence after hearing arguments on Tuesday.
Farooqui, who was taken into custody as soon as the judge read the verdict, denies the allegations.
The woman returned to the US shortly after the incident but came back to report the matter to police.
Farooqui co-directed it with his wife Anusha Rizwi, who had earlier dismissed the complaint against her husband as ‘manipulated and false’.
India introduced tough laws against sex offenders in the wake of the fatal gang-rape of a Delhi student in the capital in December 2012 that sparked mass street protests.
Farooqui (pictured here with his filmmaker wife Anusha Risvi) had become ‘close family friends’ with the 30-year-old woman, who is of Indian origin, after helping her gather information for her scholarly research
