The Mapusa District and Sessions Court in Goa on May 21 acquitted former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 sexual harassment and rape case filed by his colleague.
Mr. Tejpal was accused of raping his colleague in an elevator of a five-star hotel. He was arrested on November 30, 2013, by the Goa Crime Branch and was granted bail on July 1, 2014, by the Supreme Court.
The case hit the headlines for days amid a renewed focus on crimes against women. It surfaced a year after the rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi provoked national outrage in 2012 and prompted the government to pass a tougher law to check such crimes. The allegations against Tejpal also triggered a debate on harassment of women at workplaces and underreporting of such cases over fears of job losses and persecution.
Tejpal faced the trial under India Penal Code’s Sections 376 (rape), 354 A (sexual harassment), 354 B (criminal assault with intent to disrobe a woman), 341 (wrongful restraint), and 342 (wrongful confinement).
In February 2014, the Goa Police Crime Branch had filed a 2,846-page chargesheet against Tejpal that was divided into 12 volumes, and includes the statements of 152 witnesses.
In a statement released on Friday, Tejpal thanked his lawyer Rajiv Gomes, who died of the coronavirus last week. The journalist claimed that the last seven-a-half-years had been traumatic for his family as they had to deal with the “catastrophic fallout of these false accusations”.
