In the Tarun Tejpal case, the additional sessions court in its judgment held that Goa police destroyed “clear proof of evidence” by not producing the CCTV footage of the first floor of the five-star hotel in which the Tehelka founder-editor allegedly raped a woman, even though the investigation officer “viewed” the footage.
According to a report by Times of India, the court said that the investigation officer (IO) collected the CCTV footage of the ground, first and second floor, but that “the footage of the first floor cannot be found for the perusal of the court, which is a material lapse by the investigation officer”.
The judge said that the IO didn’t compare the statement made by the survivor on November 26, 2013 with the CCTV footage, which constitutes the most neutral evidence in the case.
“It is crucial to note that the contradictions are often so glaring that the exact opposite of what the prosecutrix (survivor) is claiming actually happens on the screen, yet the IO didn’t even question the prosecutrix on the same,” the court held.
The case of the prosecution was that on November 7, 2013, Tejpal allegedly sexually assaulted the woman under the pretext of waking up US actor Robert de Niro. The accused took the survivor into the left guest lift of block 7 of the starred hotel, and allegedly committed the offence. The prosecution also alleged that she was molested again on November 8, 2013.
The District and Sessions judge also held that the complainant “did not demonstrate any kind of normative behaviour” that a victim of sexual assault “might plausibly show”. The court said the woman’s messages to the accused “clearly establish” that she was neither “traumatised nor terrified” and this “completely belies” the prosecution’s case.
For the trial court, the woman’s “behaviour” was a key factor that, it said, undermined her case.
The trial court observed that it was “unnatural” on the part of the woman to message Tejpal about her location in the hotel where she was chaperoning a prominent US actor.
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