Tejpal offers fullest cooperation to police
Panaji: Goa Police on Friday filed an FIR against Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal, who has been accused by a woman journalist colleague of sexual assault during an event here about 10 days ago.
Deputy Inspector General of Police O P Mishra said the FIR has been filed while DGP Kishan Kumar said the crime branch could send a team of officials to Delhi for further investigation. “We will go through all the details. We will press rape charges against him, if the complaint of the girl is substantiated,” Mishra said.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had ordered a preliminary inquiry into the allegations by the girl that she was sexually abused by Tejpal during an event in Goa.
The alleged incident happened in a lift in a five star hotel in Goa about 10 days ago.
The DIG said the CCTV footage was received from the hotel last evening and was preserved.
The details of the incident can only be known after examining the footage, he said.
Police have already written to the Tehelka management, asking for the documents including email of the victim and the statement by Tejpal Parrikar had said on Thursday that the police were trying to reach to the girl and record her statement.
“We will fully backup the girl if she files the complaint,” the chief minister had said. He had also expressed the possibility of summoning Tejpal after the preliminary inquiry is over.
After the email by the woman journalist of his magazine alleging sexual assault was made public, Tejpal had announced on Wednesday night that he was “recusing” from his job for six months.
Breaking his silence in the sexual assault case, Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal on Friday offered to extend the “fullest cooperation” to the police and all other authorities and expressed readiness to present all the facts of this incident to them.
In a statement issued soon after a case was filed against him in Goa, Tejpal said he had “tried to do what was honorably demanded of me” and issued an apology for the “alleged misconduct” as demanded by the victim.
“There have been serious allegations cast on me in this last week, and unfortunately as sometimes happens in life, the complete truth and the need to do the honorable thing can come into conflict,” he said.
Tejpal said that in this case, “this anguish was accentuated by the fact that very many intimate people, professional and personal, were involved”.
“I offer my fullest cooperation to the police and all other authorities, and look to presenting all the facts of this incident to it,” the founder-Editor of Tehelka said.
“I also urge the committee and the police to obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed,” he added.
Narrating details of the events that occurred after the incident came to light, Tejpal said, “For four days, as demanded by Shoma Chaudhury, the Managing Editor (of Tehelka), and the recipient of the complaint, I have tried to do what was honorably demanded of me.
“On Tuesday, I issued an apology for the alleged misconduct, as desired by the journalist through Shoma Chaudhury.
“On Wednesday, I stepped down from the editorship of Tehelka and removed myself from the office premises. “On Thursday, I learnt of the formation of the complaints committee.”
Tejpal has been under severe attack for the alleged incident with demands for action against him under the law. (PTI)