Peepli Live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui gets 7 years in jail for rape of US woman

Live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui , who was last month found guilty of raping an American woman , was on Thursday sentenced to seven years in jail and was also ordered to pay to pay a fine of Rs 50,000.

A lower court in Delhi said that if Farooqui didn't pay the fine, his jail sentence would be increased by three months.

Farooqui, who also specializes in the art of Urdu storytelling called Dastangoi, was on July 30 convicted of raping the American woman at his South Delhi residence last year. The filmmaker, who at the time of the conviction was out on bail, was taken into custody soon after the court found him guilty.

The case relates to the March 28, 2015 rape of a 35-year-old American, a student at New York's Columbia University, who was in the Capital for research work on her doctoral thesis. During her deposition as a prosecution witness in the court, the woman alleged that Farooqui raped her and later apologised via several e-mails exchanged between them. Farooqui denied the allegations and said he was falsely implicated.

Delhi police had filed its chargesheet in the case on June 29, alleging that Farooqui raped the woman at his Sukhdev Vihar residence. Police also accused Farooqui of destroying evidence against him.