Peepli (Live) co-director Mahmood Farooqui convicted of rape

Mahmood Farooqui, sometime actor, writer and director, was convicted by a Delhi trial court today on charges of raping an American woman.

Farooqui was co-director and casting director of the highly acclaimed 2010 Hindi film, Peepli (Live), which was produced by Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao. 

The court fixed 2 August 2016 as the date for announcing the quantum of sentence. Farooqui was taken into custody after the verdict.

The matter came to light in March this year when a 35-year-old student of Columbia University, who was in India to carry out research for her doctoral thesis, accused Farooqui of rape and filed a police complaint.

During the court proceedings, the woman also disclosed that Farooqui apologized to her several times through e-mails.

Apart from Peepli Live, Farooqui was associated with Mango Souffle (2002) as an actor and Harud (2010) as screenplay writer. He is also known for performing Dastaongi, a form of Urdu storytelling.