The Tehelka office in New Delhi
The journalist who has accused Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal of sexually assaulting her in Goa earlier this month has strongly countered allegations that her complaint is a political conspiracy.
"I am fighting to preserve nothing except for my integrity and my right to assert that my body is my own and not the plaything of my employer," she said in a statement released to the media today. "What Mr Tejpal did to me falls within the legal definition of rape," she stressed. (
Read statement)
Mr Tejpal, who has been charged with rape by the Goa Police, has said that the investigation against him is payback by the BJP, which governs Goa, for earlier exposes by Tehelka on the party's top leaders.
The young reporter who said he violated her in an elevator at a Tehelka event at a five-star Goa hotel quit the news magazine earlier this week. "By filing my complaint, I have lost not just a job that I loved, but much-needed financial security and the independence of my salary. I have also opened myself to personal and slanderous attack," she said today.
Mr Tejpal, who in an email to her acknowledged trying to force what he described as a "a sexual liaision" has changed his stand in court, describing their interaction as "light-hearted bantering."
The journalist did not press charges against Mr Tejpal; she made her complaint against him to Shoma Chaudhury, then the Tehelka Managing Editor, in an email that was leaked. That note was used by the Goa police to commence its investigation.
Ms Chaudhury quit Tehelka yesterday amid a torrent of criticism for failing to report the complaint against Mr Tejpal to the police.