Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury denied that Editor Tarun Tejpal was a fugitive as speculated on social media.
With Tehelka’s offices in Greater Kailash-2 M-Block market being mobbed by television crews, Chaudhury’s belligerence belied the seriousness of the allegations. She asked television reporters on live TV whether they were “aggrieved parties”. Within a few hours of the emails sent by Chaudhury, Tejpal and the victim becoming public, a furore had started on social media, with most people demanding that Tejpal be brought to justice for his alleged assault and possible attempt to rape his junior colleague.
Several bodies, including the National Commission for Women, other women’s bodies, and several journalists questioned how Tejpal and Chaudhury could play judge and jury in the case and claiming that the aggrieved party was ‘satisfied’. Tweets were sent out pointing out that Tejpal had “given himself six-months of paid leave” and mocking the statement made in his email to Chaudhury where he says, “I must do the penance that lacerates me.”
However, NDTV reported that the confidants of the victim told the channel that the victim was unsatisfied by the actions her seniors had taken. However, some people came out to defend Tejpal’s heinous actions. Rajya Sabha member Javed Akhtar and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Shazia Ilmi believed that Tejpal’s apology was enough. But most other senior journalists, including Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN, used Twitter to express their disgust at the allegations.
With most journalists taking up cudgels against Tehelka, it appears that several people within the organisation are willing to leave the magazine as they feel that it is an unsafe place to work. A senior journalist formerly associated with Tehelka told The Pioneer, “The magazine has lost the last shred of credibility it had,” adding that the magazine, which had made its name in the sex and sleaze sting operation dubbed ‘Operation Westend’ which exposed low-level corruption in defence deals, “had outlived its purpose.”
On Wednesday evening, leaked emails purportedly sent by senior editorial figures at newsmagazine Tehelka raised a storm on social media websites. The contents of the initial emails announced that the Editor-in-Chief of the publication Tarun Tejpal was taking a six-month leave because of a ‘lapse of judgement’ that took place during Tehelka’s annual Think conclave.
It later emerged that the ‘lapse of judgement’ was a sustained effort by Tejpal to sexually assault a junior colleague twice in two nights in an elevator at the hotel where the conclave took place. Tejpal apparently violated his colleague and ensured that the elevator did not stop by pressing the buttons.
According to a summary of events written by the victim, who is a close friend of Tejpal’s daughter, it is only when Tejpal’s daughter confronted him that Tejpal said that the events occurred in a ‘drunken banter’.