New Delhi: The co-director of Bollywood hit Peepli Live, Mahmood Farooqui was arrested by the Delhi police for allegedly raping a 30-year-old US-based Indian-origin research scholar. The accused, who is husband of Peepli Live director Anusha Rizvi, was sent to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday.
The police said the woman came to New Friends Colony police station in southeast district on June 19 along with an official from the US embassy and filed a complaint of sexual assault against Farooqui. “She alleged in her complaint that Mahmood Farooqui raped her in March this year during a party at his rented accommodation in Sukhdev Vihar locality,” said the police, adding, “She alleged that after the party, which was attended by two other persons, one of them a journalist, Mahmood Farooqui urged her to stay back till his wife returned.”
The police added that as per her complaint, the victim had stayed back after the others had left and it was then that Farooqui allegedly sexually assaulted her.
A senior Delhi police officer said that after receiving the complaint on June 19, Farooqui was immediately called for questioning the next day and was put under arrest. “The victim’s statement was also recorded and further investigation is on,” added the senior police officer.
