Mahmood Farooqui, the Indian co-director of 2010 satirical comedy Peepli Live, has been arrested on rape charges.
Farooqui allegedly assaulted an American woman of Indian origin in March at his Delhi home. According to The Times of India, he is now being kept under judicial custody for 14 days.
The paper also claims to have seen the unnamed woman’s complaint in which she says she was sexually assaulted at the director’s home and that he later apologised in an email, blaming it on alcohol.
Farooqui was a co-director on Peepli Live with his wife, Anusha Rizvi, and the film was selected as India’s foreign language Oscar entry in 2010.
“The complaint is manipulated, false and belated,” Rizvi said in a written statement. “We don’t want to make any further comments on the matter because the case is under investigation. We will wait for the court’s decision where the actual truth of the matter will come out.
“We are determined to fight this till the reality is presented before the people. We are very sure of it,” she added.
