Journalist Tarun Tejpal acquitted in rape case after 8 years

 Panaji : Journalist Tarun Tejpal has got a big relief in the rape case. After 8 years, the sessions court of Goa has acquitted Tarun Tejpal. The Goa government says that we will challenge the decision. Tarun Tejpal, former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, was accused in 2013 of sexually assaulting a female colleague inside the lift of a luxury hotel in Goa.

The colleague had accused journalist Tarun Tejpal of sexual exploitation. After this, Goa police filed an FIR against Tarun Tejpal in November 2013. Then Tarun Tejpal was arrested. Tarun Tejpal has been out on bail since May 2014. The Goa police filed a 2846-page charge sheet against him in February 2014.

Journalist Tarun Tejpal on IPC sections 342 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful imprisonment), 354 (assault with intent to breach dignity or using criminal force), 354-A (sexual harassment), 376 (2) (rape by a person holding a position of authority over a woman) and 376 (2) (k) (rape by a person having a controlling position).

What was the charge
Tarun Tejpal was accused by a fellow female journalist that there was a Tehelka event in Goa, that night when she was returning after leaving a guest to his room, she found her boss Tarun Tejpal in front of an elevator in Block 7 of this hotel. Tejpal asked her to awake the guest and dragged her back inside the same lift.

In the statement given to the Goa police, the girl had said, “Now I could understand something, in the meantime, Tejpal started pressing the elevator button so that neither the elevator stopped nor the door opened and then Tejpal in this closed lift did something unlawful.”