FRESH TROUBLE FOR TARUN TEJPAL GOA GOVERNMENT ORDERS PROBE INTO…

 FRESH TROUBLE FOR TARUN TEJPAL GOA GOVERNMENT ORDERS PROBE INTO JOURNO SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATION

The Goa government today ordered an inquiry into allegations that Tarun Tejpal, the founder of Tehelka, sexually assaulted a young journalist working for the investigative news-magazine. The Goa state’s police are also trying to contact the woman for a formal statement and may summon the editor, say sources, but the magazine’s managing editor Shoma Chaudhury says it is “not a case” as the woman has not pursued it; she wanted internal action.

The woman journalist has alleged that she was assaulted by Mr Tejpal twice at a hotel in Goa where the Tehelka team was staying for an event the magazine organized earlier this month. On Wednesday, Mr Tejpal emailed his office that he was stepping down for 6 months as ‘atonement’, but activists say it is grossly inadequate.The Goa police have asked the hotel to preserve footage of the time from CCTV cameras installed in the hotel. Sources say the police are also going through the emails exchanged between Mr Tejpal, the woman and Shoma Chaudhury.

The Email Content : 

My dear Shoma,

The last few days have been most testing, and I squarely take the blame for this. A bad lapse of judgment, an awful misreading of the situation, have led to an unfortunate incident that rails against all we believe in and fight for.

I have already unconditionally apologised for my misconduct to the concerned journalist, but I feel impelled to atone further. Tehelka has been born and built, day on day, with my blood, toil, tears and sweat, and that of many others, against near-insurmountable odds. It has lived for and fought the big battles of our time, always on the side of the oppressed and the wronged, always on the side of equity and justice. Its voice has travelled the world and changed policy and perceptions. It has been a beacon for those who would do the right thing.

Through bad, and worse, times I have protected Tehelka and its journalists from the inevitable demands of power and corporations. I have always allowed every journalist’s sense of the right to flower and express itself. No one has ever been asked to do what they don’t believe in.

I have always held that Tehelka the institution, and its work, have always been infinitely more important than any of us individuals. It is tragic, therefore, that in a lapse of judgment I have hurt our own high principles. Because it involves Tehelka, and a sterling shared legacy, I feel atonement cannot be just words. I must do the penance that lacerates me. I am therefore offering to recuse myself from the editorship of Tehelka, and from the Tehelka office, for the next six months.

You have always been stellar, Shoma, and even as I apologise to you and all my other colleagues, for this unfortunate incident, I leave Tehelka in your more than capable and safe hands.

In apology,
Tarun