Indian court hands 10-year jail to former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal in rape case

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MUMBAI — An Indian court on Thursday sentenced former Tehelka magazine editor Tarun Tejpal to 10-year rigorous imprisonment after convicting him of raping a former colleague, overturning his 2021 acquittal in a decade-old case.

The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court found Tejpal guilty of raping a junior colleague at a Goa resort 13 years ago. Setting aside the 2021 judgment of the trial court that had acquitted him, the high court directed Tejpal to surrender before Goa police within two weeks.

The high court, however, did not cite any reason for the verdict. A detailed order in the case is awaited.

Tejpal, who has consistently denied the accusations against him, can appeal against the verdict in a higher court.

The allegations against Tejpal, one of India's best-known editors, had made national headlines in 2013.

Tejpal's accuser, who cannot be identified under Indian law, alleged that he sexually assaulted her in a lift during Tehelka's high-profile international conference in Goa in November 2013, an event attended by, among others, Hollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Robert De Niro.

Tejpal initially blamed it on "a lapse of judgment" and "a misreading of the situation" which had "led to an unfortunate incident that rails against all we believe in and fight for".

But as the case escalated, he issued a statement urging authorities to examine the CCTV footage "so the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed". He also alleged that the case against him was part of a "political vendetta" by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa.

Tehelka, the magazine Tejpal co-founded in 2000, had published a number of scoops, many of them based on sting operations.

Some of these stories — including Operation West End in which some of its journalists posed as arms dealers, secretly filming senior army officials, bureaucrats and even the president of the then ruling BJP taking bribes to push through a fake deal — created national and international ripples.

Tejpal was arrested in 2013 and spent seven months in jail until the Supreme Court granted him bail.

In 2021, a sessions court in Goa threw out all the charges against him. But the judge's observations in the 527-page order had sparked criticism after she questioned the behavior of the survivor..

In photographs taken shortly after the assault, the judge wrote, the young woman was "smiling and looked happy, normal, in good mood".

"She did not look disturbed, reserved, terrified or traumatised in any way even though this was immediately after she claims to have been sexually assaulted," the order said.

The Goa government had appealed against this judgment in the high court.

Appearing for the Goa government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the high court to impose the maximum sentence on Tejpal.

"This court must give a clear message to society that when a girl says no, it means no. A no means a no," Mehta was quoted as saying.

"All I can say is I am 62. I believe I am a political victim. I am a father of two daughters. I have a wife. All we can say is we will go up and appeal. My lawyer wants me to request you to be lenient," legal website Bar and Bench quoted Tejpal as telling the court.