Panaji: Former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal was acquitted by a Goa court on Friday. He had been accused of raping a colleague at his magazine’s event at a five-star resort in North Goa in 2013 and arrested on November 30 the same year. He denied all charges against him and was later released on bail in May 2014.
In a statement issued after the verdict, which was read out on Tejpal’s behalf by daughter Cara, he said that the last seven-and-a-half years had been “traumatic” for his family as they dealt with the consequences of the “false allegations” against him.
“The past seven-and-a-half years have been traumatic for my family as we have dealt with the catastrophic fallout of these false allegations on every aspect of our personal, professional and public lives…We have felt the boot of the state, but through it all, we have co-operated fully with the Goa police and the legal system, through hundreds of court proceedings,” the statement read.
Tejpal further said he was thankful to Judge Kshama Joshi, who pronounced the judgement, for ‘standing by the truth’. “In November 2013 I was falsely accused of sexual assault by a colleague. Today the Hon’ble Trial Court of Additional Sessions Judge Kshama Joshi, in Goa, has honourably acquitted me. In an awfully vitiated age, where ordinary courage has become rare, I thank her for standing by the truth,” he said. In the statement, he also paid his tribute to his lawyer, Rajiv Gomes, who died of Covid. “Last week my trial lawyer, Rajiv Gomes, 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,” he said.
The verdict comes after several delays, first due to the Covid pandemic and more recently because of Cyclone Tauktae.
The Tehelka allegations had broken out when emails containing the woman’s complaints and responses from her seniors at Tehelka were leaked. Tejpal stepped down as the editor soon after, saying he was “recusing” himself for six months. In a 2,684-page chargesheet filed before the Goa fast-track court, the police had said there was enough evidence against him.