City police oppose Farooqui’s bail plea

Delhi Police on Thursday opposed the bail plea of “Peepli Live” co-director Mahmood Farooqui, accused of raping an American researcher, saying it is a heinous crime and one-third of sexual assault cases of foreigners in the country occur in the Capital.

Rebutting the arguments of Farooqui on bail application moved by his counsel, who said he was a “law abiding citizen”, the police told the court that in a case like this, societal concern needs to be given primacy over individual liberty and here “we are dealing with perverted behavior of an individual”.

The court, after hearing the arguments, reserved its order on framing charges and bail of Farooqui, who is in judicial custody since June 20 for allegedly raping the 35-year-old woman in an inebriated state after inviting her for dinner at his house.

“Arguments on charge and bail heard. Matter be listed for orders on September 2,” Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain said. The court also directed the forensic department to examine the woman’s phone on priority after the Investigating Officer (IO) informed it that the complainant is in Delhi till October 5, after which her visa will expire.

An application was moved by Farooqui seeking inspection of her phone which allegedly had text messages relating to the case. “It is submitted by the IO that the mobile phone has been sent to FSL to retrieve data and victim’s visa is valid up to October 5. Director of FSL is directed to take this case on priority and submit the report by September 15,” the court said.

While seeking bail for Farooqui, advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan submitted that his family has been cooperative and is law-abiding.

She said that complainant had nothing to fear if Farooqui is released from jail, adding when he was granted interim bail for four days in July, he did not abuse that liberty.

Prosecutor <g data-gr-id="25">A T</g> Ansari, while urging the court to keep the accused in jail, cited the NCRB data saying out of 486 cases of sexual assault of foreign nationals in the country, one-third belong to Delhi.