New Delhi:
Tarun Tejpal’s daughter Cara Tejpal has asserted her father’s innocence in the rape case where he was recently convicted by the Bombay High Court. Claiming that she was convinced of his innocence because she has been sifting through the evidence for 13 years, she requested others to do the same without paying attention to headlines.
Read: Ex-Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal Convicted For Raping Colleague. All About The Case
The conviction, she has also insisted, has been engineered by the BJP, which has been repeatedly exposed by Tehelka, which was helmed by her father.
On Thursday, Tejpal was sentenced to 10 years in jail and told to surrender by the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court, which had turned down the trial court verdict acquitting him. The case relates to allegations by a former junior colleague that the veteran journalist sexually assaulted her inside a hotel elevator during the ThinkFest event in Goa in November 2013.
The assault took place inside the elevator of a five-star hotel during an event in Goa on November 7 and November 8, 2013.
Tejpal was arrested on November 30, 2013. He had also stepped down as editor-in-chief of Tehelka in the wake of sexual assault allegations.
In May 2021, a trial court in Goa had acquitted him of all charges, including wrongful confinement, assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty, sexual harassment, and rape. The Goa government had challenged the verdict.
Tejpal said he is a victim of politics and said he would approach the Supreme Court.
In her post, Cara Tejpal said, “Tehelka’s journalism was independent and fearless in a way never replicated since. It also brought the ire of the state upon its founding editor – my father”.
“Tarun Tejpal was more than a thorn in the side of the BJP government, and what better way to silence him than to portray him as the most reviled of all sinners – a rapist. Such a genius stroke; anyone who dare question the assertion invites the wrath of the righteous public,” the post added.
