New Delhi (Sputnik) — Indian film director Mahmood Farooqui has been sentenced to seven years in prison for raping an American research student at his New Delhi residence in 2015. He has also been fined $750, which will be paid as compensation to the victim. This is the first such conviction after India amended its law in 2013 to include 'forced oral sex' as rape.
Delhi Court sentences film maker Mahmood Farooqui to 7 years imprisonment for raping an American woman
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According to Vridna Grover, the victim's lawyer, "the accused (Farooqui) applied force and pushed her down. She then froze. She knew if she resisted the rape upon her, the consequence would be worse," seemingly implying that Farooqui had forced the graduate student to perform oral sex on him rather than vice-versa, a fact that wasn't expressly noted in most Indian media sources.
She left for the US after a few days and sent Farooqui an email reminding him of the incident, to which Farooqui as well as his wife promptly replied with an apology. In one of the emails, Farooqui's wife apologized for the victim for the 'oral sex'. This exchange of emails was presented to the court as evidence, on the basis of which the court pronounced him guilty.
"She stated that on March 30, 2015, she sent an e-mail…to the accused that she knew that he was upset on Saturday night but she had said ‘no’ to his advances and he had physically forced himself on her. He almost immediately replied to the email by [offering his] 'sincerest apologies'," the judgment said, quoting an excerpt from her evidence.
