Peepli Live co-director Mahmood Farooqui seeks bail

NEW DELHI: Peepli Live co-director Mahmood Farooqui, who is an accused in a rape case, on Thursday approached a trial court for bail.
Additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain posted the matter for August 25, saying he will also hear arguments on charges on the same day. Farooqui is accused of raping an American research scholar at his residence.
The director also moved an application seeking inspection of a cellphone of the survivor, saying he needs to go through some text messages which she had sent to her friend, who is also a prosecution witness.
During the brief hearing, Farooqui's counsel said, "There is mention of text messages sent through the cellphone in the statements of the woman and also a witness recorded under provisions of law but the call detail records which police is relying upon does not show any such messages being sent." The counsel further said that if police is relying upon the phone records, then the accused is entitled to inspect the same.
Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for the complainant opposed Farooqui's plea, saying there is no provision under law that the accused is entitled to inspect the case property at the stage of framing of charge.
She said mere statements of the woman recorded under the provisions of law are more than enough for framing of charges under Section 376 (rape) of IPC against the accused. The court seemed to be in agreement with Grover as it said that if the case property is given to Farooqui for inspection, then theE is every possibility of its tampering.
"The cellphone is being analysed by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and the data is being retrieved from it in a hard disk. As soon as FSL comes out with a report it will be given to the accused," the court said.