1 hour ago
Former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine Tarun Tejpal approached the Supreme Court on Thursday, challenging the recent Bombay High Court decision that convicted him in the 2013 rape case, news agency PTI reported.
The appeal comes a day after the Goa government moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Bombay High Court’s order on Tejpal’s sentence and seeking life imprisonment for the former journalist, India Today reported.
Before the apex court, the Goa government argued that the 10-year sentence was “grossly disproportionate” to the gravity of the offences. It added that the sentences for the two separate assaults should not have been ordered to run concurrently, the India Today report said.
The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court, in a ruling on August 6, found Tejpal guilty of rape and sexual harassment. The court subsequently sentenced Tejpal to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, overturning the earlier ruling of a Sessions Court in Mapusa.
The case pertains to 2013, when a woman journalist accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her in a hotel elevator on November 7 and 8.
The sessions court in 2021 had acquitted Tejpal, saying the complainant “did not demonstrate any kind of normative behaviour” that a victim of sexual assault “might plausibly show".
The Tehelka founder has maintained that he is innocent and that he was a “political victim". Before the Bombay High Court, Tejpal had pleaded for leniency, saying, “I am 62, and I believe I am a victim. I have a wife, and that's not much else to say. All that I can say is we can go and appeal. Please be lenient with me. The rest of the facts are placed on record.”
Tejpal’s challenge against his conviction follows the Bombay High Court’s direction asking him to surrender within two weeks. The court later extended the period to four weeks following a request from the former journalist’s lawyers.
