CCTV footage from the elevator at Goa hotel cannot be Editor Tarun Tejpal’s case any longer, as it has been found that the elevators did not have any cameras. But police said cameras in the lobby shows a distraught girl leaving which could prove Tejpal’s guilt. Goa police is in the capital to question Tehelka staff and could also question the accused.
Agency Report
New Delhi: The arrest of Tarun Tejpal, 50-year old founder of Tehelka news magazine who is embroiled in a sexual assault case, is imminent, sources in the Delhi Police said on Saturday.
A three-member team of Goa Police, which arrived here around 11.30 a.m., reached Tehelka office and scrutinised documents, including the laptop and I-pad of the magazine’s managing editor Shoma Chaudhury. The Goa Police team, which was accompanied by Delhi Police personnel, questioned Chaudhury and some other employees of Tehelka.
Sources in Delhi Police said that the Goa Police team can also question Tarun Tejpal, and might arrest him, following orders from senior officials of that state’s police force. A Delhi Police team has also been deployed at Tejpal’s residence.
The victim, a junior employee of the magazine, had claimed that Tejpal had sexually assaulted her at a Goa resort Nov 7 and 8, during the magazine’s Thinkfest event. Tejpal was accused of sexually assaulting her twice in a hotel elevator during the high-profile conference. A case of sexual assault was registered against Tejpal in Goa on Friday.
The First Information Report was filed suo motu by the Goa Police Crime Branch officials under Sections 354, 376 and 376 (2) (k) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deal, respectively, with criminal use of force on a woman and rape.
No CCTV footage from hotel elevator
Panaji: In what could be a setback for the sexual assault probe against Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, police said Saturday CCTV cameras were not installed in the hotel elevator where Tejpal is alleged to have sexually assaulted his junior colleague twice.
“There are no CCTVs in the elevator,” Deputy Inspector General of Police O.P. Mishra told reporters at a press conference at the police headquarters.
Tejpal in a statement released on Friday also requested investigators to “examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed”.
“I cannot reveal any more information because investigations are on,” Mishra said. Sources, however, said CCTV footage from outside the elevator does show the victim leaving the elevator “in a hurry” on one occasion.
Have spoken with Goa Police: Shoma Chaudhury
New Delhi: Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury said on Saturday that she had responded to Goa Police and assured them of cooperation in investigations into the sexual molestation charge against the editor-in-chief of the magazine.
“I have given all the information demanded by Goa Police and even talked to them regarding any more help needed from my side,” Shoma Chaudhury said, refuting reports in the media that she had not been cooperative with investigators. She said a wrong version had been floating in the media until now that she was not cooperating with the police team from Goa, set to arrive in New Delhi soon.
“Look at the factuality and the chronology of the evidence I have given to them. I have interacted with my colleague journalist and the editor-in-chief,” Chaudhury said. (IANS)