Tehelka founder and Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal (File photo)
Tehelka news-magazine, lashed by scorching criticism of its treatment of a complaint of sexual assault against editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, has belatedly set up a panel to probe the allegation.
Late last night, Ms Chaudhury said a committee headed by noted women's rights activist and author Urvashi Butalia would investigate the allegation of a journalist that she had been sexually assaulted by Mr Tejpal on two consecutive days at a hotel where the magazine's team was staying for an event organised two weeks ago. (
Read: Statement released by Tehelka)
Ms Chaudhary had faced criticism for telling reporters earlier, "He (Tejpal) stepped down. It was not something she'd asked for. It was over and above that. If you are more aggrieved than the journalist herself, I cannot answer..." (
Watch)
Mr Tejpal had emailed his office on Wednesday that he was "recusing" himself for six months from office as "penance that lacerates me", attributing his behaviour to "a bad lapse of judgement, an awful misreading of the situation." (
Read: Tarun Tejpal's letter)
The woman journalist told NDTV yesterday she was "deeply disappointed" by the organisation's response.
The National Commission for Women said it's not for Mr Tejpal to decide how he should be punished. (
Read: 'Tejpal isn't God that he can decide his own punishment')
"Self-proclaimed atonement and recusal for a period are hardly the remedies for what the allegations show to be outright criminality. The full force of the law must be brought into its investigation and prosecution," said a statement from the Editors guild of India. (
Read full statement here)
A source close to her told NDTV that while pleading with Mr Tejpal to stop assaulting her, the journalist urged him to remember that he is her father's age.
The Goa police have started their own investigations and asked the magazine for the woman's complaint.