Journalist Tarun Tejpal sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2013 rape case

Journalist Tarun Tejpal was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for raping and sexually harassing a junior colleague in 2013, Bar and Bench reported.

The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court asked him to surrender within two weeks.

Allowing the appeal filed by the Goa government, a division bench of Justices Neela Gokhale and Amit Jamsandekar set aside the verdict of a sessions court from 2021 that had acquitted Tejpal.

The High Court convicted Tejpal under provisions of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to rape by a person holding trust or authority, rape by a person who is in a position of control or dominance over a woman, sexual harassment and criminal force against a woman with an intent to disrobe her, Live Law reported.

Tejpal, the former editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, was accused of raping a junior colleague in an elevator in 2013. He had been arrested in November 2013 and was in jail for seven months before being granted bail by the Supreme Court in July 2014.

A sessions court in Goa’s Mapusa had acquitted him in May 2021.

Additional Sessions Judge Kshama Joshi had said at the time that Tejpal was granted “benefit of doubt” in the absence of corroborative evidence to support the allegations made by the complainant. The judge had also remarked that the...

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