Tejpal to face trial for rape
Former Tehelka Editor-inchief Tarun Tejpal will be tried on charges of raping and sexually harassing a junior colleague, a Goa court said on Thursday. The trial will commence on September 28 with the formal framing of charges.
The charges pertain specifically to rape, sexual harassment, assault and wrongful restraint. If found guilty, the 54-year-old editor faces 10 years to life in jail. He was accused by the colleague of sexually assaulting her in an elevator of a five-star hotel during the magazine’s in-house festival in Goa. Tejpal was subsequently arrested but is now out on bail.
Briefing reporters outside the District and Sessions Court, the public prosecutor told reporters that all charges proposed by the police, including Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code, had been endorsed by the court, while an additional Section 354 (b) (criminal assault with intent to disrobe) had been added.
Some of these stringent provisions, which were introduced after the 2012 rape and murder of a young physiotherapist in Delhi, say a person who is in position of power and trust will face a maximum of life imprisonment for rape. Also, under the amended law it is not important that there has been intercourse.
Tejpal's counsel said that the future course of action would be decided "once the order is examined". After the controversy erupted, Tejpal, who had admitted to “bad lapse of judgment” and an “awful misreading of the situation”, was constrained to quit Tehelka.
In the case of former Punjab police chief KPS Gill, who was accused molestation by an IAS officer, the Supreme Court had junked his justification that he was drunk at a party in 1998 and that the incident, wherein he had patted her on the back, was a lapse of judgment on his part. The apex court had upheld his conviction for outraging the modesty of the woman IAS officer.
Tejpal had requested the session court under CrPC Section 327(2) that the rape proceedings be held in-camera, so that the media does not get to cover the trial. Agreeing to his plea, the session court had some time back granted his request.