Goa moves high court against Tejpal order
PANAJI: The Goa government has called a verdict acquitting journalist Tarun Tejpal of rape and sexual assault by additional sessions judge Kshama Joshi as “perverse” and “influenced by extraneous inadmissible materials and testimonies”, and filed an appeal before the Bombay high court at Goa.
The former editor of Tehelka magazine was accused of raping a colleague in an elevator of a five-star hotel in Goa during the THINK festival in November 2013. The complainant alleged that Tejpal raped her in a lift in the hotel on November 7 and attempted to assault her again on November 8. Tejpal, who refuted the charges in court, was acquitted by the fast-track court on May 21.
The Goa government filed an appeal against the verdict in the Bombay high court last Tuesday. In its amended appeal against the judgment, the Goa Police have said that the verdict was “shocking in its apparent legal bias against the prosecutrix” and that the judgement was “unsustainable in law and is coloured by prejudice and patriarchy” and that “much of the impugned judgment has
THE FORMER EDITOR OF TEHELKA MAGAZINE WAS ACCUSED OF RAPING A COLLEAGUE
been consumed by sexual gossip and alleged sexual fantasies related to the prosecutrix which were legally prohibited”. The appeal is scheduled for hearing on Wednesday.
The Goa Police also contended that the trial court completely discarded the testimony of the survivor despite “her statement given in court, gave a clear and cogent account of the incidents of sexual harassment, rape, sexual assault, outraging of modesty, use of criminal force, and wrongful restraint and confinement”.