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Goa court acquits former Tehelka editor in rape, sexual assault case
The case hit the headlines for days amid a renewed focus on crimes against women. It surfaced a year after the rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi provoked national outrage in 2012 and prompted the government to pass a tougher law to check such crimes
A fast-track court in Goa on Friday acquitted Tarun Tejpal, 57, the former editor of Tehelka magazine, of charges of rape and sexual assault levelled by a former colleague during a conference at a five-star hotel in Goa in 2013.
The case hit the headlines for weeks amid a renewed focus on crimes against women. It surfaced a year after the rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi provoked national outrage, and prompted the government to pass tougher laws to check such crimes. The allegations against Tejpal also triggered a debate on harassment of women at workplaces, and underreporting of such cases over fears of job losses and persecution.
Tejpal faced the trial under India Penal Code’s Sections 376 (rape), 354 A (sexual harassment), 354 B (criminal assault with intent to disrobe a woman), 341 (wrongful restraint), and 342 (wrongful confinement).
Additional sessions judge Kshama Joshi acquitted Tejpal, days after his lawyer Rajeev Gomes, 47, died of Covid on May 12.
Tejpal maintained he was falsely accused of sexual assault, while Francisco Távora, the special public prosecutor in the case, called the judgement a serious setback, and said that the state was likely to file an appeal.
“[We] will be going through the reasons assigned by the judge. We are seriously aggrieved and that is why we will be preferring an appeal against it,” Távora said.
Tejpal said after the verdict the past seven-and-a-half years have been traumatic for his family. “In an awfully vitiated age, where ordinary courage has become rare, I thank her [the judge] for standing by the truth,” he said in a prepared statement. “...we have dealt with the catastrophic fallout of these allegations on every aspect of our personal, professional, and public lives,” he added.
Tejpal also said they felt the “boot of the state”but cooperated fully with the Goa Police and the legal system through hundreds of court proceedings. He thanked the court for “its rigorous impartial and fair trial” and for its thorough examination of the CCTV footage and other empirical material on record.
The investigators in 2013 said there were no cameras in the elevators even as they studied footage from CCTV cameras in the hotel. Tejpal had also referred to an “unfortunate incident” between himself and the colleague in a leaked e-mail to Tehelka’s management in 2013. He described the incident “bad lapse of judgment” in the e-mail.
In another note, later, however, he said that he was being “framed”.
In his statement following his acquittal, Tejpal said his family’s privacy should be respected. “I will make a comprehensive statement at an appropriate time in the future.”
Tejpal also paid a tribute to Gomes. “Seldom does a long-fought vindication arrive hand in hand with profound heartbreak. Last week, my trial lawyer died of Covid. Dynamic and brilliant at 47, he was on the brink of a scintillating career as a criminal lawyer at the national level. No person fought harder, and with greater skill to reclaim my life and reputation. As a family, we owe Rajeev a profound and permanent debt.”
Gomes’s son, Sean, was present in the court and thanked it for passing a fair and just judgement. “...my father put in a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication into this case,” he said.
Távora blamed Tejpal’s attempts to get himself discharged in the case among the reasons for the delay in the trial. “The accused wanted discharge in the case and went up to the Supreme Court and got a stay. That is why the trial was stopped for a while for two years. Then it was resumed in 2019. Since August 2019, it has been going on. Since September 2020, it has been going on a day-to-day basis.”
The trial in the case began in September 2017 before it was stalled as Tejpal moved the high court, and then the Supreme Court against the framing of charges against him, and for his discharge. The Supreme Court ordered that the trial be completed by December 2020. It later extended the deadline citing the pandemic. The pronouncement of the judgement was again adjourned on Wednesday as power supply was disrupted due to Cyclone Tauktae.
