Shoma Chaudhury at the National Commission for Women (NCW)
Shoma Chaudhury, who resigned as the Managing Editor of Tehelka news magazine this morning, met with the National Commission of Women in the afternoon. The panel has been among the most vociferous critics of how Ms Chaudhury handled allegations that the publication's founder sexually assaulted a young reporter.
In an email to staff, Ms Chaudhury denied being part of a "cover-up" to protect Tehelka's founder and editor Tarun Tejpal, who has been accused of raping the reporter at a five-star hotel earlier this month. (
Read)
"As a result of what's transpired over the past few days my integrity has repeatedly been questioned by people from our fraternity and, in fact, by the public at large," Ms Chaudhury wrote.
"I do not want questions raised about my integrity to tarnish the image of Tehelka, which it has done in the past week. Therefore, I resign as Managing Editor with immediate effect," she
added. (
Read the full text of her mail here)
She acknowledged that "she could have done many things differently".
The National Commission for Women and legal experts have alleged that Ms Chaudhury broke the law by failing to report her employee's complaint against Mr Tejpal to the police.
The young reporter, who has since resigned from the magazine, first made the allegations against Mr Tejpal in a detailed email to Ms Chaudhury, which was leaked and then used by the Goa Police as the basis of its rape case against him.
Ms Chaudhury's resignation comes three days after the alleged victim also quit the magazine, saying she had come under pressure from Mr Tejpal's family to drop her allegations.
Mr Tejpal had been ordered to meet the Goa police today but wrote to them to say he will "join the investigation" on Saturday. Tomorrow, the Delhi High Court will decide whether to grant him pre-trial or anticipatory bail.