The Goa police says a team will travel to Delhi to arrest him. A young woman journalist has alleged Tejpal sexually assaulted her on two days at a Tehelka event in Goa earlier this month.
Tejpal has also been charged with outraging a woman’s modesty and rape by someone who had dominance and authority over the woman which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a minimum 10 years in jail.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley accuses Tejpal and Chaudhury of striking “a private treaty” in what he describes as an attempt to suppress “a clear case of rape”.
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Tejpal in a statement says he will cooperate with the investigation.
He says he wants the police “to obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed”.
Goa police says it has gone through the footage from the security cameras at the five-star hotel where the alleged assault took place.
Shoma Chaudhury, Managing Editor of Tehelka, says Tejpal’s version of events is different from what the journalist has offered, and that a committee created at the news-magazine will examine both accounts.
Chaudhury says despite the differing accounts, she asked Tejpal to issue an unconditional apology to the young journalist.
Chaudhury reportedly told a News TV channel, “I do not believe it is my place to go the police.”
Activists and legal experts ask why neither she nor Tejpal reported the complaint to the police, given the gravity of the allegations.
Chaudhury says her actions were also guided partly by concerns like financial future of the organization and whether the controversy could cost people their jobs.
The Union Home Ministry has asked the Goa government for a report on what it has uncovered so far.
The journalist has not filed a police case so far. She made her complaint in an email to Chaudhury on Monday.
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