HC reserves order on Goa Govt’s appeal against Tarun Tejpal’s acquittal

The Bombay High Court on Thursday reserved its order on the Goa Government’s appeal against the acquittal of journalist Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 sexual assault case.

Justices Dr Neela Gokhale and Amit Jamsandekar of the Goa bench reserved the order after hearing arguments from both sides, which mainly dwelt on whether the former Tehelka editor’s “apology email” to the complainant amounted to an admission of guilt.

The bench did not specify when the order will be pronounced.

Appearing for the Goa Government through video link, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta argued that the trial court committed a serious error by assessing the complainant’s conduct based on preconceived notions of how a victim of sexual assault should behave.

There is no universal standard for a victim’s reaction, as responses vary according to a person’s education, personality, social background and circumstances, he said.

The complainant, being an educated, independent woman journalist, could continue discharging her professional responsibilities despite the alleged assault, and such conduct could not be used to doubt her credibility, Mehta said. Addressing alleged inconsistencies in the complainant’s statements, Mehta contended that minor variations in testimony are natural and do not undermine the truthfulness of a witness. The trial court wrongly relied on insignificant discrepancies instead of examining whether the core allegations remained consistent, the Solicitor General said.

He further argued that the complainant’s various communications, including her complaint to her employer, messages exchanged after the incident, and other records demonstrated that her version of events had remained materially consistent from the very beginning.

Referring extensively to an email sent by Tejpal to the complainant after the alleged incident, Mehta submitted that the accused had apologised for his “lapse of judgment”, described the episode as “devastating”, expressed shame, and stated that he believed the encounter had been consensual.

These statements amounted to an admission that an encounter had taken place, and were inconsistent with the defence’s stand that no incident had occurred inside a hotel lift, said Mehta.

If nothing had happened, there would have been no reason for repeated expressions of remorse, shame, or references to lifelong punishment in Tejpal’s apology email, the Solicitor General said. He also highlighted the accused’s statement that he would not dispute the complainant’s account or underplay her anger and hurt, contending that these were significant admissions.

Senior Advocate Abad Ponda, appearing for the former Tehelka editor-in-chief, countered these arguments by claiming that the prosecution misinterpreted Tejpal’s apology emails as admissions of a sexual encounter.

Referring to the testimony and cross-examination of prosecution witness Shoma Chaudhury, Ponda submitted that while her statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (recorded before a magistrate during the probe) referred to Tejpal having a “different version” of the incident, she made it clear during the cross-examination that according to Tejpal, the only “sexual encounter” was a sexual conversation outside Block No. 7 on November 7, 2013.

The prosecution was incorrectly treating the phrase “fleeting consensual encounter” in the apology emails as an admission of physical intimacy, the defence lawyer argued.

None of Tejpal’s apology emails contained any admission of a consensual physical or sexual encounter, Ponda said, contending that he referred only to a consensual verbal conversation of a sexual nature and not to any physical act.

If the apology was truly an admission of a sexual encounter, there would be no need for the defence to extensively challenge the CCTV footage, evidence of alleged incidents in the lift and other factual aspects, Ponda said.

Referring to the complainant’s WhatsApp messages, Ponda submitted that her own reaction to the apology showed that she did not consider it an admission of sexual assault.

A woman colleague of Tejpal accused him of sexually assaulting her inside a hotel elevator on November 7 and 8, 2013, during an event organised by the Tehelka magazine in Goa.

A court in Mapusa, Goa, acquitted Tejpal of all charges in 2021, following which the state filed an appeal.