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Informist, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026

 

--HC sentences Tarun Tejpal to 10 yrs in jail in sexual assault case 

--CONTEXT:HC convicted Tehelka former editor in chief in sexual assault case 

 

NEW DELHI – The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court Thursday sentenced Tarun Tejpal, former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2013 sexual assault case. Rejecting the Goa government's request for the maximum sentence, the high court said the incident took place 13 years ago and there is no report of misconduct against Tejpal since. Both parties must have moved on in life, the court said. It granted Tejpal two weeks to surrender to the police.

 

The high court said Tejpal is convicted under Section 376(2)(f) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 376(2)(k), Section 354, Section 354(a), Section 354(b), Section 341, and Section 342. Some of these sections carry a punishment of 10 years while others carry a sentence of 3-5 years. Since the sentences will run concurrently, the larger sentence of 10 years will be applicable to Tejpal. In addition, Tejpal has been ordered to pay the fine under these sections to the victim.

 

On sentencing, Tejpal said he is 62 years old and requested the court for leniency and to provide the minimum sentence possible as stipulated under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. Tejpal said he had no prior criminal cases; it was his first offence and he is a citizen with good conduct.

 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Goa government, urged the court to grant maximum punishment to Tejpal. Despite the victim, a girl his daughter's age, saying no, he committed the offence, Mehta said. Tejpal was a father figure and should not have indulged in this; a precedent must be set, he said. The victim refused, but he kept advancing on two subsequent days, Mehta said, adding that the court must send out a clear message to society that "when a girl says no, it means no. A no means a no".

 

A woman journalist had complained that Tejpal had sexually assaulted her in a hotel elevator on Nov. 7, 2013, and Nov. 8, 2013. In 2021, a trial court had acquitted Tejpal of all the charges, observing that the complainant "did not demonstrate any kind of normative behaviour" that a victim of sexual assault "might plausibly show". The trial court had held that there was no medical evidence and the woman's messages to the accused clearly established that she was neither "traumatised nor terrified" and that this "completely belies" the prosecution's case. Challenging the trial court's order, the Goa government had moved the high court.

The state government argued that the manner in which the trial court had dealt with the case was "perturbing". The trial court had virtually laid down guidelines on how a victim should respond in such circumstances, the state government said. It was a classic case of perverse findings, it added. Embarrassing questions were put to the complainant during her cross-examination about whether it is immoral to have consensual sex, consume alcohol, or smoke cigarettes voluntarily, or whether she had had conversations containing "sexual overtones" with friends, it said.
 
Tejpal had argued that the complainant's testimony was not that of a "sterling witness" and there were contradictions in her version of the events in the hotel lift. The journalist relied on closed-circuit television footage, arguing that it did not support allegations that he had pulled the complainant into the lift or forcibly dragged her back into it. The complainant's conduct after the alleged assault was also inconsistent with the prosecution's case that she was traumatised and fearful, he had said.
 
Tejpal had also cited WhatsApp messages, closed circuit television footage, e-mails, witness testimony, and other material placed on record during the trial. He had argued that the complainant continued to participate in social gatherings. After the alleged incidents, she had visited Hollywood actor Robert De Niro's hotel suite at night and her "movements" in the week after the alleged assault were "far from constrained".  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Himanshi Gupta

 

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