Peepli Live director rape case: US national cross-examined by accused

New Delhi, Sept 24: The Amercian research scholar who was allegedly raped by Bollywood movie 'Peepli Live' co- director Mahmood Farooqui was today cross-examined by the accused in a Delhi court.

The cross-examination was conducted before Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain in an in-camera proceeding, where the counsel appearing for Farooqui asked questions to the woman regarding her purpose of visit to India and how she came to know the film maker.

According to court sources, the researcher answered most of the questions asked by the defence counsel which related to the sequence of events prior to the alleged incident.

Her cross-examination is likely to conclude tomorrow after which her friend, also a US national, will depose as prosecution witness.

On September 22, while deposing as witness, the woman had deposed that after the alleged rape incident around nine emails were exchanged between her and Farooqui in which he had expressed his apology.

On September 9, the court had started the trial in the case after framing charges of rape under section 376 (rape) of IPC against Farooqui. It had dropped the charge under section 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC against him.

The police had on June 29 filed the charge sheet against Farooqui alleging he had raped the 30-year-old research scholar from Colombia University at his Sukhdev Vihar house in south Delhi on March 28 this year.

The woman, in her complaint, had alleged that Farooqui had raped her when she had gone to meet him to get help for her research work.

PTI