By Marcellus D’Souza

Apr 19: The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court today reserved orders in the appeal challenging the trial court’s order acquitting Tarun Tejpal in the rape case of November 2013. Tarun Tejpal was accused by a reporter of sexual assault during ‘Think in Goa’. He admitted "misconduct", and offered to take six months leave, as "penance", from Tehelka, a magazine owned by him.

Pleading to grant ‘leave of appeal’, the Goa government had contended that the trial court rather than evaluating the evidence against the accused Tarun Tejpal had put the victim on trial.

Tarun Tejpal had pleaded with the Court not to grant Goa governments ‘leave of appeal’ had contended that due procedure was not followed while filing the appeal.

On May 21, 2021, in an astounding 527-page judgment, the Sessions Court in Mapusa, Goa, presided over by Justice Kshama Joshi had acquitted Tarun Tejpal of all charges.

Supreme Court Judge Justice L Nageswara Rao had recused himself from hearing the appeal filed by high profile journalist Tarun Tejpal against the Bombay High Court’s order rejecting his plea for an in-camera hearing of the proceedings challenging his acquittal in a 2013 rape case.

“I recuse as at some stage in 2016, I had appeared for state of Goa in the matter. Let it be listed in some other court next week, said Justice Rao, who was sitting with Justice B R Gavai on the bench.

The bench was to hear the plea of Tarun Tejpal whose application for conducting an in-camera hearing of the proceedings under section 327 of the CrPC was rejected by the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on November 24, 2021.

In November 2013, Tarun Tejpal was accused by a reporter of sexual assault during “Think in Goa”. Police in Goa, where the incident took place, filed a First Information Report (FIR) which listed charges, including rape, against him. Police also announced they had seized CCTV footage from the Grand Hyatt hotel, the site of the alleged incident. On November 22, 2013, the same day the presence of CCTV was announced by the prosecution, Tarun Tejpal issued a press release demanding that the CCTV footage seized by the police immediately be released to the public. Tarun Tejpal also denied all charges against him.
A non-bailable warrant was issued against him by the Goa Police. Consequently, he was arrested by Goa police on November 30, 2013. On July 1, 2014, Supreme Court granted him bail and asked him to submit his passport to the court.

The trial began in September 2017, then was temporarily deferred when Tarun Tejpal appealed to the Supreme Court that the charges be quashed. He also moved the Supreme Court to be given a copy of the CCTV footage, which the court directed the police to comply with. The court rejected his plea on quashing charges in August 2019, sent the trial back to the lower court, which it directed to complete in six months. The Goa sessions court deferred the judgement to May 19, 2021.

On May 21, 2021, Tarun Tejpal was acquitted of all charges. The 527-page judgement substantially relied on CCTV footage of the ground floor and second floor of the Grand Hyatt hotel, the site of the alleged incident, to acquit the former editor. Justice Kshama Joshi also noted substantial investigative bias and lacunae by the Investigating Officer in the case. Highlighting the right to a fair trial guaranteed to an accused under Article 21 of the Constitution, the verdict listed over 40 aspects of investigative lacunae and failure by the investigating officer including the destruction of key evidence that would "conclusively corroborate the defense of the accused," page 433 of the verdict noted. "The IO has in some cases, such as the CCTV footage of the first floor of block 7 of the Grand Hyatt, entirely destroyed the evidence...", the verdict stated.

Tarun Tejpal began his career in the 1980s with The Indian Express and later moved to New Delhi to join a now defunct magazine called "India 2000". In 1984, he joined India Today magazine, then The Financial Express in 1994 and later became the founding editor of India's second largest newsmagazine publication, Outlook. Meanwhile, he founded a publishing company, "India Ink". In February 2000, Tarun Tejpal set up India's first journalistic website, Tehelka.

Tarun Tejpal has been living in Moira, Goa for over a decade. Tarun Tejpal and his wife Geetan Batra purchased a sprawling six-bedroom mansion 'Birdsong' in Moira, close to Mapusa. The 200-year old mansion is located in the idyllic north Goa village which has a population of around 5000 persons. The house originally belonged to the Octavio De Souza family who sold it to a Goa-based developer Saleem Ali Shah around a decade ago. The Tejpals bought the property for over Rs 1 crore from Shah in 2009. They renovated it at substantial cost for over two years. It is now advertised as a Rs 55,000-a-night boutique villa.