New Delhi: Even as the Delhi HC set the hearing on Tejpal's anticipatory bail plea for Wednesday, the Goa police officially recorded the victim's statement in Mumbai.
On Tuesday morning, the Delhi High Court issued notice to Goa police and set for Wednesday the plea seeking anticipatory bail for Tehelka cofounder and editor Tarun Tejpal in the sexual assault case against him.
Taking a U-turn on his earlier statement, Tejpal questioned the journalist behaviour in his bail application, contending that she was 'normal' during the whole episode, and that the girl continued to participate in the Think Fest with elan.
Also read - Delhi HC refuses to grant interim relief to Tejpal
Justifying himself, the Tehelka editor also pointed out that the girl partied all night in Goa, and that she was 'friendly' throughout. His bail plea also questions why the journalist failed to raise the issue during the Think Fest.
Tejpal also attacked the BJP saying that the reason for their bias is well-known to everybody.
Also read - Full text of the Tehelka journo's resignation letter
In a related development, Tehelka released a statement today morning saying that the office had written to the victim of the sexual assault, asking her to suggest names for the internal complaints committee being formed.
The magazine has also admitted that they are having a tough time forming the team. Many of the journalists and other eminent personnel approached by Tehelka choose to recuse themselves from the charge considering the fact that the Goa police is already conducting an investigation into the incident.
Also read - Tehelka having trouble forming Complaints Committee
Meanwhile, celebrated author and activist Arundhati Roy dubbed the entire sexual assault episode as “Rape Number Two: the rape of the values and the politics that Tehelka claims it stands for.”
Also read - Tehelka woman journo resigns, attacks Shoma
Now that it has become a police matter, she said that on the advice of lawyers whose services only the very rich can afford, Tejpal has begun to do what many men accused of rape do — vilify the woman he preyed on and call her a liar.
“Outrageously, it is being suggested that Tarun is being ‘framed’ for political reasons — presumably by the Right-wing Hindutva brigade. So now a young woman who he very recently saw fit to employ, is not just a loose woman, but an agent of the fascists? This is Rape Number Two: the rape of the values and the politics that Tehelka claims it stands for."
Roy's first book, The God Of Small Things which won a Booker, was published by Tejpal's publishing firm India Ink.
