Narrated ordeal to friend after incident: US woman tells court

A US research scholar, who was allegedly raped by Bollywood movie 'Peepli Live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui, today told a Delhi court that she had texted and narrated her ordeal to the friend who had introduced her to the accused soon after the incident.
Deposing as a prosecution witness before Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain in an in-camera proceeding, the woman narrated sequence of events which followed the incident, including that she was upset and had texted a friend about it via social networking application 'Whatsapp'.
According to court sources, the woman said the friend, who is also a prosecution witness, had earlier introduced her to Farooqui in connection with her research work.

Sources said the American national, while supporting the case of prosecution, told the court that after she texted her friend about the incident, she took a taxi to her home and on the way she called him and narrated the incident in entirety.
Recording of her testimony, which went on for the fourth consecutive day, remained inconclusive and would continue on September 22 when she is likely to be cross-examined by the defence counsel. Her friend is also likely to depose before the court on the same day.
Meanwhile, a Forensic Science Laboratory official informed the court that the report will be ready by September 22, the next date of hearing.

On September 9, the court had started the trial in the case after framing charges of rape under section 376 (rape) of IPC against Farooqui. It had dropped the charge under section 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC against him.

The police had on June 29 filed the charge sheet against Farooqui alleging he had raped the 30-year-old research scholar from Colombia University at his Sukhdev Vihar house in south Delhi on March 28 this year.
Police had also annexed medical reports of the woman and statements of over a dozen witnesses including a common friend. Farooqui has been in judicial custody since his arrest on June 20 and his bail plea is pending before the court.

The woman, in her complaint, had alleged that Farooqui had raped her when she had gone to meet him to get help for her research work.
She had claimed to have met Farooqui at Varanasi where she had gone to collect information about her research theme based on Baba Gorakhnath.