Tarun Tejpal Case: Goa Court Defers Verdict To May 21

Tarun Tejpal case: On Wednesday, a sessions court in Goa postponed the verdict of the case against Tarun Tejpal to May 21. This comes following the deference of the verdict from May 12 to 19. The final arguments regarding the 8-year-old trial of the Tehelka founder-editor came to an end in March.

On Nov 7 and 8, 2013 Tejpal allegedly sexually assaulted a junior colleague. The incident took place at an event organised by Tehelka in a star hotel in North Goa. The Goa Police lodged a suo motu FIR against him. In such cases, the court can take an action of its own accord, without the request from the parties involved.

The Goa court cited power outage as the reason behind the deferment of the case verdict from May 19 to 21. The state is facing the impact of Cyclone Tauktae that is storming the west coast of India. Authorities stated the judge presiding over the Tarun Tejpal case was unable to go through the case literature and work on the verdict, Times of India reported.

Here is a timeline of the case:

Tarun Tejpal Case: A timeline

On Nov 28, 2013, Tejpal turned up in Goa and was arrested, two days after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected. On May 19, 2014, he was granted interim bail to attend the cremation of his mother. Since then, he had been out of jail and was granted regular bail in July the same year.

In Sep 2017, a Mapusa court framed charges against Tejpal for allegedly raping his colleague in 2013. The journalist paved the way for a trial by not pleading guilty. He challenged the framing of the charges by the additional district and sessions court through a criminal revision application. But the high court of Bombay at Goa dismissed it. The cross-examination of the survivor started on Oct 21, 2019. Reportedly, the Goa court will give its verdict on May 19 this year.

Charges against Tarun Tejpal

Tejpal has been charged for offences under IPC sections 354 and 354-A among others. The former includes assaulting or using criminal force on a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty and the latter is related to outraging modesty.

Who is Tarun Tejpal?

Tarun Tejpal is an Indian journalist, novelist, publisher and former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine. He began his career with The Indian Express and later joined the now defunct magazine India 2000. In 1984, he joined the India Today magazine. A decade later, he joined The Financial Express and later became the founding editor of Outlook.