Delhi High Court refuses to grant Tarun Tejpal interim protection from arrest

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to grant interim protection against arrest to Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal, who has been accused of sexually assaulting his junior colleague on November 7 and 8 at a hotel in Goa.

Justice Sunita Gupta also asked the counsel for the Goa police to file its reply, if any, and fixed the hearing of Tejpal's anticipatory bail plea for hearing on Wednesday.

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"I am opposing the matter due to the seriousness of the allegations against the accused," the counsel for the Goa police said, adding that he has not been supplied with the copy of the petition by the accused journalist.

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Refusing to grant interim protection, Justice Gupta said, "I don't have even the copy of the FIR with the petition. Let them file the reply then I will see...."

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Tulsi submitted, "This has become a political battle. I am entitled to interim protection as has been the practice in this court. At best, the case is of section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and it is the figment of imagination that it has become a case of section 376 (rape) of the IPC. Even the girl has not made any statement to the police."

At the start of the hearing, the counsel of the Goa police sought one week's time to respond to the petition of Tejpal and opposed the submission seeking grant of any interim protection against his arrest.

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Terming one of the two incidents as "only light hearted bantering", the petition said, "The nature of the said meeting can be easily established by perusal of a CCTV footage of Hotel Hyatt, Goa, which is within the knowledge and reach of the Goa police but the same has been blatantly ignored by the investigating agency.

"That on November 8, 2013 a further meeting took place between the two individuals but the same lasted for few seconds and contained no incident which could constitute commission of a cognisable offence."

Tejpal said that the woman colleague "continued to party and was completely normal and friendly all throughout her stay in Goa". "She was at every party and social event through the conference and stayed out late in the night."

Terming the complaint of the victim as "motivated, false and an afterthought", the petition said it was filed after a delay of 10 days.

It also refuted the allegations. "The Managing Editor (of the magazine), however, refused to even listen to the applicant's version and overrode him, telling him that she was making the decision in Tehelka's interest," it said.

In a related development, a team of Goa police headed by Investigating Officer Sunita Sawant landed in Mumbai and recorded the statement of the woman journalist, who has accused Tehelka magazine editor Tarun Tejpal of sexually assaulting her.

Meanwhile, publisher Urvashi Butalia refused to head Tehelka's internal complaints committee set up to probe sexual assault allegations against its editor Tarun Tejpal, saying it was now not needed as the case was being investigated by police.

In a letter to Tehelka's Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury, Butalia, Director of Zubaan Books publishing house, said she was recusing herself from heading the committee under the Vishakha guidelines. She was appointed by Tehelka to head its internal probe panel.

In a tweet, Zubaan Books said today, "Zubaan would like to clarify that our director Urvashi Butalia is not on the committee Tehelka was planning to set up in line with the Vishakha guidelines, nor on any other committee related to the Tejpal case. On Friday the 22nd of November, Urvashi wrote to @ShomaChaudhury, saying any such committee that was planned was redundant now that due process under the law had begun."

Responding to the above statement, Tehalka said on a social networking site today, "Since last Thursday, Tehelka has requested several people to be a part of the Sexual Harassment Enquiry Committee in Tehelka, including eminent people like Urvashi Butalia, Inakshi Ganguly, Sharmila Tagore, Justice Leela Seth, Prem Shankar Jha, Uma Chakravarti, Vrinda Grover, and several others.

"Tehelka has also written to the complainant journalist asking her to suggest some names for the committee, but she hasn't replied. However, despite all our efforts, there is a strong sense amongst lawyers and activists that, given that a criminal enquiry by Goa police was started on Thursday itself and a criminal case has now been filed, an Enquiry Committee would not have any legal standing.

"Hence, many of the people Tehelka has approached wish to recuse themselves from the committee. We are trying to persuade them to reconsider and remain committed to having such a committee to investigate this matter."