Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexually assaulting a woman journalist, will be tried in a fast-track court by a female judge.
“Tejpal will be tried in a fast-track court. We will follow the Supreme Court’s guidelines and have a female judge in this case,” Parrikar said here at an event organised by a media house.
Tejpal is currently in Goa Police’s custody for allegedly raping his employee last month during an event organised at a five-star hotel.
Parrikar’s remarks come even as Tejpal is said to be sticking to his version that whatever happened between the two was a “consensual act”. Parrikar said despite Tejpal’s sting operations that badly hit the BJP, he will not be treated in a “wrong way”.
“This is a matter of criminal investigation. It’s not my habit to interfere in criminal investigation. I will see to it that justice is given to the girl. No one be worried that Tejpal, just because of his earlier background, will be treated in a wrong way or a different way.”
In Goa, a senior police official said the investigation is heading in the right direction and Tejpal is cooperating. “Tejpal has been maintaining that the act was consensual though he has not denied having indulged in the act. He has corroborated what the young girl has stated in her complaint, except that the act was forced upon the girl and has so far stuck to his version that the act was consensual,” the
official said.
Tejpal, who has been in police custody since Saturday night, has been spending much of his time going around pathological labs at Goa Medical College and OPD of the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB).