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Indian police Friday booked the country's leading investigative journalist and the editor of Tehelka weekly news magazine, Tarun Tejpal, for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman colleague during an annual media event in the western state of Goa recently.
Sources said that the Goa Police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the 50-year-old journalist after the National Commission for Women pressurized for the filing of the complaint.
"An FIR is the first step in the filing of formal charges. Tejpal may be finally booked for raping the woman journalist if her allegations are substantiated," the sources said, adding the criminal complaint was lodged despite the victim not filing the same.
The police action came a day after Tejpal resigned temporarily over allegations of him sexually assaulting the woman colleague.
"A bad lapse of judgment, an awful misreading of the situation, led to an unfortunate incident that rails against all we believe in and fight for. I have already unconditionally apologized for my misconduct to the concerned journalist, but I feel impelled to atone further," Tejpal said in an email to his staff members.
He added: "I am voluntarily recusing myself as editor for six months."
The magazine's Managing Editor, Shoma Choudhary, told the media on Wednesday night, "This is an internal matter. The journalist concerned is satisfied with the action taken."
But, a confidante of the alleged victim has said she was subjected to "an act of grave sexual misconduct" and that she was "completely shattered and emotionally scarred."
"The act happened continuously over a period of time.. and despite the girl pleading that she is almost the age of his daughter.. she pleaded 'please don't do this'.. her 'no' was not accepted... it happened once and it happened the next day," the confidante told NDTV news channel.
Tehelka shot to limelight in 2000 as a news website for investigative journalism. It created a flutter in India in 2001 when it did a sting operation and released the footage showing military officials and politicians accepting bribes from undercover journalists posing as arms dealers.
