Defence witnesses depose for Farooqui

NEW DELHI:Three people, of which two were friends of filmmaker Mahmood Farooqui, on Thursday deposed as defence witnesses in the rape case filed against Farooqui by an American woman.
Both his friends-Darian Shahidi and Avinash Satwik-deposed in favour of Farooqui, supporting his stand that he did not rape the 30-year-old woman at his house in south Delhi's Sukhdev Vihar on March 28.An official from Meru cabs also deposed as a defence witness in the case.
Recording of their statements remained inconclusive and additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain fixed December 9 as the next date of hearing, when these witnesses would be cross-examined.
Earlier, Farooqui had moved an application seeking four persons to be examined as defence witnesses. On September 2, the court framed charges under Section 376 (rape) against Farooqui but dropped the charge of destruction of evidence. On June 29, police had filed a chargesheet in the case, accusing Farooqui of raping the woman, a research scholar.