Goa: Former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after the Bombay High Court overturned his 2021 acquittal in the 2013 Goa rape case. His daughter Cara Tejpal has strongly criticised the verdict, calling it a “miscarriage of justice” and saying her family’s “nightmare of 13 years continues.”
The case, which first made headlines in 2013, has taken another major turn after more than a decade of legal proceedings. The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court convicted Tejpal of rape and sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court rejected the findings of the trial court, which had acquitted him of all charges in 2021.
The allegations date back to November 2013, when a junior female colleague accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her inside a hotel elevator in Goa during a Tehelka event. Tejpal has consistently denied the allegations.
His arrest followed soon after the allegations surfaced, and the case went through years of investigation and court proceedings before reaching trial.
In May 2021, a Goa Sessions Court acquitted Tejpal after a lengthy trial. The judgment ran into 527 pages, with the court examining extensive evidence and witness testimony. The acquittal was subsequently challenged by the Goa government before the Bombay High Court.
The High Court has now taken a markedly different view of the evidence. It criticised the trial court’s approach to the complainant’s behaviour and said the earlier judgment had relied on stereotypes about how a survivor of sexual assault should behave. The court also reassessed evidence including emails exchanged after the alleged incident.
Reacting to the verdict, Cara Tejpal defended her father and questioned the High Court’s interpretation of the evidence. She pointed to the earlier trial judgment and argued that important material had been viewed differently by the two courts.
In her statement, she also criticised what she described as the public eagerness to see a powerful man punished, saying the idea of “nailing a powerful man” had, for some, become more compelling than finding the truth.
Her comments have once again brought the case into the spotlight, with supporters of Tejpal questioning the conviction while the High Court’s judgment represents the latest judicial finding against him.
Tejpal is expected to challenge the conviction and sentence before the Supreme Court. For now, however, the Bombay High Court’s ruling remains the latest major development in a case that has stayed in the public eye since 2013.
ALSO READ: Tarun Tejpal Gets 10 Years’ Rigorous Imprisonment in 2013 Sexual Assault Case