This Article is From Feb 17, 2014

Tehelka's Tarun Tejpal charged with rape in Goa police charge-sheet

Tehelka's Tarun Tejpal charged with rape in Goa police charge-sheet
Panaji: The Goa police today formally charged Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal with raping his colleague and said there is enough proof that he admitted to the crime.

In its charge-sheet filed before a magistrate today, the Goa police cited proof that Mr Tejpal "admitted commission of rape" in documents, including emails to the woman, and other statements.

Mr Tejpal has been charged with rape, unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures and taking advantage of one's official position. If convicted, he faces a maximum of life in prison.

Mr Tejpal, 50, was accused by his younger colleague of sexually assaulting her at a 5-star hotel in Goa during Tehelka's ThinkFest in November. After a series of emails between the woman, Mr Tejpal and the magazine's managing editor Shoma Chaudhury were leaked, the senior editor was arrested on November 30.

The Goa police charge-sheet says the woman journalist was raped by "a person whom she trusted as a fatherly figure and respected as a senior colleague."

The alleged incident, the police say, had caused "serious psychological injury to the dignity, self-esteem and overall personality of the journalist."

The charge-sheet runs into over 2,800 pages and includes the statements of 152 witnesses, including the journalist and other staff of the Tehelka magazine.

CCTV footage from the hotel has also been cited extensively in the charge-sheet as evidence against Mr Tejpal, who is currently in a jail in Vasco, about 40 minutes from Panaji.

The senior editor has been charged under the new, tougher laws on sexual assault enacted in the aftermath of the gang-rape of a young student on a moving bus in Delhi in December, 2012, which jolted the nation.
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