Panaji, Nov 27 (IANS): Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar asked Tehelka editor-in-chief Traun Tejpal if he was a "Congress stooge", and also why were Congress union ministers like Jayanthi Natarajan supporting him.

Parrikar said it was a guilty conscience which made Tejpal confess.

"Is Tejpal a Congress stooge? First Tejpal should clarify that," Parrikar said.

"It was his guilty conscience which made Tejpal confess," Parrikar said, in reference to Tejpal's email to Tehelka managing editor Shoma Chaudhury in response to his junior journalist's complaint about his sexual assault on her.

The chief minister denied reports that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was pressurising Goa Police to out Tejpal in the dock.

"I am the Goa chief minister. As an administrator, I am not going to say anything on the comments of BJP leaders," Parrikar said.

Parrikar also said that he was not sure about the future of ThinkFest - the Tehelka annual event in Goa during which Tejpal is alleged to have twice sexually assaulted the woman journalist, his jounior.

"Who would like to come (to the event) now?" Parrikar wondered, talking to reporters at a press conference here.

Tejpal alleged that the Goa government was giving him a bad time because the ruling BJP had a "long standing grudge" against him for the investigative journalism he did when the party headed the central government.

The sting Tehelka conducted to expose corruption in army acquisition, caused the BJP's then president Bangaru Laxman and defence minister George Fernandes to resign.