'Witness protecting Farooqui'

NEW DELHI: The prosecution in a rape case against filmmaker Mahmood Farooqui on Wednesday termed a prosecution witness as "unreliable", claiming hethe witness had deposed to "protect" Farooqui as they are close friends. The prosecution said told the judge Sanjiv Jain that the court should not place any reliance on the testimony of prosecution witness Ashish Singh as Singh, due to his proximity with Farooqui, who is accused of raping an American national - has tried to "save" Farooqui."It is an admitted fact that he (Singh) is the childhood friend of the acused and he comes in the innermost circle of friends of accused. He is very close not just to Farooqui but also to his family. He would have a motivation to to protect his close friend. He is not trustworthy and has given contradictory statements," said Vrinda Grover, the woman's counsel. The arguments remained inconclusive and will resume on March 4.
Farooqui is accused of raping the 30-year-old research scholar from Colombia University at his Sukhdev Vihar house in south Delhi on March 28 last year.
Singh, a close friend of Farooqui, was recently re-examined by the court on the orders of the Delhi high court. The HC had passed the order after the womanUS national had moved a plea saying some new facts have been introduced which were going against the prosecution case, for which, Singh needed to be re-examined. During his deposition, Singh had said that he was at the house of Farooqui at the time of the alleged incident- which is cited by the woman as the time of the alleged incident. He also deposed that when he met the woman, which according to her was after the incident, she seemed to be calm and composed.
In his re-examination, Singh denied the suggestions of prosecution that he wanted to aid the defence of Farooqui as he was his childhood friend. He had also denied the suggestion that he was a part of an "elaborate cover up" to save Farooqui. and therefore was deposing falsely regarding the presence of the accuseds wife in the house at the time of the alleged rape incident on March 28, 2015. The High Court had on February 12 allowed Ashish to be re-examined before the trial court while allowing the plea of the complainant. On October 8 last year, Ashish had recorded his statement before the trial court for the first time. Farooqui, who is out on bail, has denied all allegations against him.
The woman, in her complaint, had alleged that Farooqui was drunk when he raped her at his house where she had gone to get his help for her research work.