Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal, who will be in the custody of Goa Police for the next six days, was today taken to hospital for a sexual potency test, mandatory in cases of sexual assault. Mr Tejpal has been charged with raping a young woman journalist during a Tehelka event at a five-star hotel in Goa last month.
Here are the latest developments:
Mr Tejpal, 50, was grilled for over five hours by the Crime Branch of the Goa Police on Sunday soon after a Sessions Court remanded him in six days of police custody.
The senior journalist is lodged in the Panaji police lock-up housed in an old Portuguese era building.
Today, his lawyers are expected to request the court to allow Mr Tejpal a fan while he is in police custody, Press Trust of India reports.
The senior journalist is also expected to be taken to the Grand Hyatt hotel, where he allegedly raped his junior colleague, to help the police reconstruct the sequence of events.
Police inspector Sunita Sawant is leading investigations in the case.
"He will be confronted about the conflict between his e-mails and media statements where he admits to a sexual liaison in the elevator on November 7 and 8 and his subsequent rejection of the same," a police officer said.
But Mr Tejpal has said that the encounter with the young woman reporter was consensual, describing it as "light-hearted bantering".
But the reporter, who quit Tehelka last week, accusing it of trying to engineer a cover-up to protect Mr Tejpal, has fiercely contested the latter's version of events.
She has also alleged that the family of the senior journalist has tried to intimidate and harass her after the Goa Police filed its case against Mr Tejpal.
The journalist did not press charges, but detailed her allegations against Mr Tejpal to her boss at Tehelka, Shoma Chaudhury, in an email that was leaked. She resigned last week. The Goa Police used that email to commence its investigation against Mr Tejpal.
