Emails show US native was attracted to Farooqui: Court told

Bollywood film-maker Mahmood Farooqui, facing trial in a rape case, today argued in a Delhi court that e-mails exchanged between him and the US researcher after the alleged incident do not indicate that she was sexually assaulted but shows her attraction towards him.
Continuing final arguments before Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain, the defence counsel said that in the text messages sent by the woman to a friend after the alleged incident, she has nowhere referred to the assault.
"Her (woman's) e-mail sent to Farooqui referring to the incident shows intimacy between them and her attraction towards him as she has said in the e-mail that she considers him a good friend and understands he was upset on the day of incident," advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for Farooqui, said.

The counsel further said, "Is this the conduct of a woman who has been sexually assaulted? It is not. She has also said that she loves him. How can a woman who has been forced upon by a man, say she loves and respects him?"
Referring to the text messages sent by the woman to a common friend, Danish Hussain, the counsel said she has not mentioned about the assault in those messages and rather appeared upset about something trivial.
"The first communication of the woman after the alleged assault was with her and Farooqui's common friend Danish Hussain. The text messages exchanged between them do not contain any content which indicates that she was sexually assaulted. They suggest irritation rather than trauma," she said.

Commencing the final arguments yesterday, Farooqui had questioned the version of the woman, an American research scholar from Columbia University, saying the fact that she remained in his house for long, reflected her comfort level.

Farooqui, who is out on interim bail, had earlier denied the allegations levelled against him saying he was falsely implicated in the case.
The trial in the case had commenced on September 9 last year when the woman had recorded her statement.
The US native, during in-camera proceedings, had alleged that Farooqui had raped her at his Sukhdev Vihar residence here on March 28 last year and later apologised to her in several e-mails exchanged between them.

The court had started trial in the case after framing charges of rape under section 376 (rape) of IPC against him.
The police had on June 19 lodged an FIR against Farooqui on the complaint of the woman after which he was arrested. The charge sheet was filed against him on July 29.