New Delhi: Faced with the threat of arrest after Goa Police filed an FIR against him for allegedly attempting to rape and outraging the modesty of a woman journalist working with his magazine and Delhi Police officials reached his residence, Tehelka Founder-Editor Tarun Tejpal issued a statement saying he is ready to cooperate with the investigators.
Goa Police has also got the CCTV footage from the five-star hotel where Tejpal allegedly assaulted the woman even as the Home Ministry took cognizance of the case and sought a report from the investigators in the case.
Taking suo moto action in the case, the Goa Police on Friday sent teams to Delhi to interrogate Tejpal and investigate the case. "If he will not cooperate we will arrest him," said Goa Director General of Police Kishan Kumar adding that the officials will try to meet the girl and would request her to come on record to help probe.
One of the India's best known journalists, Tejpal had on Wednesday apologised to his fellow journalist and stepped aside from his post as the Editor-in-Chief of Tehelka for six months. However, there is a growing chorus from within the media fraternity and outside that's Tejpal going on penance and his 'atonement' is just an eyewash and the law must take its course.
Reacting to the allegations against him, Tejpal on Friday said that he will co-operate with the police and all other authorities in the investigations as the complete truth needs to come out. "There have been serious allegations cast on me in this last week, and unfortunately as sometimes happens in life, the complete truth and the need to do the honorable thing can come into conflict. In this case this anguish was accentuated by the fact that very many intimate people, professional and personal, were involved," he said in a statement.
But Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury, who is in-charge of the magazine after Tejpal recused himself for six months, remained defiant and said she would not cooperate with the police. "There is no criminal case as the girl has not filed a police complaint," said Chaudhury as she also battled allegations over insufficient steps being taken in the alleged sexual assault case.
Tehelka on Thursday constituted a formal complaints committee in accordance with Vishaka guidelines. The committee will be presided over by Urvashi Butalia, who is an eminent feminist and publisher, to investigate the sexual assault case.
Expressing confidence in the committee to look into the allegations of the woman journalist, Tejpal urged them and the police to "obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed."
Chaudhury defended the magazine's decision and said that she had "overruled Tarun's version of the incidents, confronted him angrily and forced him to issue an unconditional apology."
Chaudhury also accused the media for not verifying the facts related to case and asked the media to refrain from concluding it as a case of "sexual assault or rape".
"I do feel a sense of outrage and betrayal. Tarun Tejpal had a different version of the event after I got this email. I extremely angrily confronted him after speaking to the girl. I got to know of the incident on Monday. The girl had marked three other journalists on it and I confronted Tejpal even without checking with the others," she said.
Voices of criticism were also heard from the political circle with the BJP accusing Tehelka of opting for a "friendly approach". Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley issued a statement on the issue and emphasised that everybody should encourage victims to depose "truly and faithfully" as punishing an offender acts as a deterrent in the larger interest of society.
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