Former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court’s recent judgment convicting him in a 2013 rape case and sentencing him to 10 years’ imprisonment.
The petition challenging the conviction and sentence was filed on Thursday morning and is likely to be mentioned for urgent hearing, as Tejpal is required to surrender in the first week of September.
The case stems from allegations made by a former junior colleague of Tejpal, who accused him of sexually assaulting her inside an elevator at a luxury hotel in Goa during an event organised by Tehelka in November 2013. The allegations led to the registration of an FIR by the Goa Police under various provisions, including those relating to rape. Tejpal was arrested in November 2013 and was released on bail in July 2014.
The trial commenced in 2017 and continued for nearly four years. In May 2021, a Goa trial court acquitted Tejpal, holding that the prosecution had failed to establish the case beyond reasonable doubt. The trial court also pointed to several lapses and omissions in the investigation, including the failure to produce crucial evidence such as CCTV footage.
The Goa government challenged the acquittal before the Bombay High Court. On August 6, the Goa Bench of the High Court reversed the trial court’s verdict, convicted Tejpal and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment, besides imposing a fine of over Rs 10 lakh.
Tejpal has now challenged the High Court judgment before the Supreme Court, seeking reversal of his conviction and sentence.
Separately, the Goa government has also approached the Supreme Court seeking enhancement of Tejpal’s sentence from 10 years to life imprisonment. The State has clarified that its plea is confined to the question of sentence and does not seek to reopen or challenge the High Court’s findings of conviction.
The Supreme Court will now be called upon to examine Tejpal’s challenge to the High Court judgment as well as the State’s plea seeking enhancement of the sentence.
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