The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the Delhi high court judgement acquitting the director of ‘Peepli Live’ of rape charges stating that it was an “extremely well decided case”.
The acquittal by the HC had been challenged by the alleged rape survivor who had said that the film’s director, Mahmood Farooqui, had had forced oral sex with her without consent.
A fast-track trial court had previously found Farooqui guilty sentencing him to seven years in prison.
No Reason To Believe It Wasn’t “Consensual Sex”
A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao dismissed the complainant’s appeal challenging the acquittal of Farooqui.
While dismissing the appeal, the SC noted that Farooqui and the alleged rape victim had been good friends and had also had sexual interaction before the incident therefore there was no cause to believe that they didn’t have consensual sex.
The SC stated in its ruling that it was satisfied with the HC verdict and that it “will not interfere in it” .
The Delhi high court had observed in its controversial judgement that when a person says “no”, it might not always mean “no”, adding that examples existed of “woman’s behavior (where)… a feeble ‘no’ may mean a ‘yes’ ” while involving past intimacy.
Quashing the trial court’s “guilty” verdict, the HC stated that the claim of rape was unreliable in its opinion, noting that the woman had faked an orgasm at that time. The woman had justified it stating that she had feared violence similar to the Nirbhaya case if she resisted
The Delhi HC stated that during “an act of passion”, actuated by libido, a number circumstances may surround a consent and so it may not mean always “yes in case of yes or no in case of no”.
The 35-year-old complainant had alleged that Farooqui, had raped her at his South Delhi home on March 28, 2015.
