New Delhi:
Tarun Tejpal, the founder of Tehelka news-magazine, has been charged with rape in an FIR filed by the Goa Police today. A young journalist at Tehelka has said that Mr Tejpal sexually assaulted her twice at an event in Goa earlier this month.
Here are the 10 big developments in this story:
The FIR against Mr Tejpal lists rape by a person in a position of authority over the woman. It carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.
A team of the Goa Police will reach Delhi tomorrow morning and will interrogate Mr Tejpal and Tehelka's Managing Editor, Shoma Chaudhury, said sources.
The young journalist who was allegedly sexually assaulted has not filed the case against Mr Tejpal. She made her complaint in an email to Ms Chaudhury on Monday. The email has been leaked.
Legal experts and activists say the charges in the email suggest a case of rape, according to the new laws for sexual crimes against women that were introduced after December's fatal gang-rape of a student on a Delhi bus.
Ms Chaudhury says Mr Tejpal's version of events differs from that of the journalist's. She said both will be heard by a committee set up by Tehelka to investigate the case. (Read)
Indira Jaising, the Additional Solicitor General, told NDTV today that legally, Ms Chaudhury was obliged to report the complaint to the police.
Ms Chaudhury told NDTV today that she disagrees with that assessment. "It is not my place to go to the police," she said. It is the young journalist's right to decide how to proceed, she said. (Read)
Mr Tejpal, in a statement today, said that he will cooperate with the investigation.
He said he wants the police "to obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed." (Read: Urge police to release CCTV footage, says Tarun Tejpal)
The Goa Police says it has gone through the footage from the security cameras at the five-star hotel where the alleged assault took place.
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