HC seeks police reply on Farooqui's appeal in rape case

New Delhi, Oct 5 () Delhi High Court today sought the response of Delhi Police on a plea filed by

Bollywood

film 'Peepli Live' co-director

Mahmood Farooqui

, sentenced to seven years imprisonment for raping a US researcher, challenging his conviction. Justice S P

Garg

also issued notice to the police on the bail plea of Farooqui and directed it to file its reply by November 30, the next date of hearing. A trial court had on August 4 sent him to jail for seven years observing that he had taken advantage of the situation when the victim was alone in his house. The court, which on July 30 had held Farooqui guilty of raping the American woman last year at his house in a drunken state, had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him. While convicting 44-year-old

Farooqui

, the trial court had said the victim's testimony was credible that he took advantage of the fact that their common friends were not at his residence where the researcher had visited. Farooqui, who was earlier out on bail, was taken into custody immediately after his conviction in the case. The police had on June 19, 2015, lodged the FIR against Farooqui on the woman's complaint after which he was arrested. On July 29 last year, the police filed a charge sheet against Farooqui alleging he had raped the research scholar from

Columbia University

at his

Sukhdev Vihar

house in South Delhi on March 28 last year. The victim had alleged in court during an in-camera hearing that Farooqui had raped her and later apologised in several e-mails exchanged between them. Farooqui had denied the allegations against him, saying he was falsely implicated by the woman.

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