Amend references to victim’s identity in Tejpal judgement: HC to Goa Court

Panaji, May 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Bombay High Court bench in Goa on Thursday directed the Additional District and Sessions Court in North Goa to rewrite references which reveal the identity of the victim in its 527 page order that on May 21 acquitted former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal from charges of rape levelled against him by a junior colleague in 2013.

The High Court's single bench of Justice SC Gupte said that the alterations to the judgement should be made in three days, before the order is uploaded to the court's online portal for public viewing, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta pointed out that the order by the Additional District and Sessions judge Kshama Joshi contained references to the victim's husband and her email id.

The Court is now expected to hear the state government's appeal against the acquittal granted to Tejpal on June 2.

Inexplicable normalcy of the victim, post twin alleged sexual assaults, shoddy police investigation and an 'outright lie' in her deposition were some the reasons which may have led to the acquittal of former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal courtesy "benefit of doubt", according to a judgement by the Goa Court.

Additional District and Sessions North Goa judge Kshama Joshi in her judgment had also underlined "glaring contradictions" in the statements of the victim, her mother and brother, as well as in the statement made by the victim in context of the CCTV footage of the hotel where the alleged crime occurred in November 2013.

Tejpal was charged against under sections 376 (rape), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement) 354A (sexual harassment) and 354B (criminal assault), of the Indian Penal Code.

Source: IANS