New Delhi: The proceedings in a case involving “Peepli Live” co-director Mahmood Farooqui, who has been named in a charge sheet for allegedly raping an American research scholar at his residence here, will now be conducted by a sessions court.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Devender Kumar Garg, who had taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed by Delhi Police against Farooqui, supplied the copy of the final report to the accused and committed the case to sessions court. “Accused has been charge-sheeted for offences punishable under section 376 (rape) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC. As section 376 IPC is exclusively triable by court of sessions, therefore, the case is committed to the court of sessions for trial in accordance with law,” the ACMM said.
The court also directed the Tihar Jail Superintendent to produce Farooqui before the sessions court. On June 29, the police had filed the charge sheet against Farooqui alleging that he had raped the 30-year-old research scholar from Colombia University at his Sukhdev Vihar house here on March 28. Police had also annexed medical reports of the woman and statements of more than a dozen witnesses including a common friend.
Farooqui, arrested on June 20, has been in judicial custody since then. The woman, in her complaint filed at the New Friends colony police station, alleged that Farooqui had raped her when she had gone to meet him to get his help for her research work. She had claimed to have met Farooqui at Varanasi where she had gone to collect information about her research theme based on Baba Gorakhnath.
