Tarun Tejpal acquittal: Goa questions courtroom’s silence on girl’s ‘character assassination’ | India Information
4 min learnPanajiUp to date: Jun 24, 2026 06:45 PM IST
Difficult the acquittal of Tarun Tejpal, the previous editor-in-chief of Tehelka who was accused of sexually assaulting his then colleague in a Goa resort in 2013, the Goa authorities on Wednesday argued earlier than the Excessive Courtroom of Bombay at Goa that it was a “traditional case of perverse findings”.
Solicitor Common Tushar Mehta, showing for the state authorities, informed the Excessive Courtroom that “embarrassing” questions put to the complainant throughout her cross-examination, regarding whether or not it’s immoral to have consensual intercourse or devour alcohol or smoke cigarettes voluntarily or whether or not she had conversations containing “sexual overtones” with buddies, shouldn’t have been requested or considered by the trial courtroom.
“That is the realized Decide, recording findings… with regard to the lady who has remained constant by her testimony. That is what perversity appears to be like like. That is the traditional case of perverse findings,” he stated.
The lady journalist had complained that Tejpal sexually assaulted her within the resort elevator on November 7, 2013, and November 8, 2013. In 2021, a periods courtroom in Goa acquitted Tejpal of all costs, observing that the complainant “didn’t display any form of normative behaviour” {that a} sufferer of sexual assault “would possibly plausibly present”.
Ruling that there was no medical proof, the courtroom stated the lady’s messages to the accused clearly set up that she was neither “traumatised nor terrified” and this “fully belies” the prosecution’s case. The Goa authorities had subsequently filed an attraction within the Excessive Courtroom of Bombay at Goa difficult the acquittal, and arguments within the case are ongoing.
In its judgment in 2021, the trial courtroom had cited the lady’s relationships up to now, her views on consensual intercourse, ingesting, smoking, her “cheerful and pleased and much from traumatised or upset” look in images taken after the alleged assault, her go to to the resort suite of an actor she was chaperoning “at an unnaturally late hour”, “flirtatious and sexual conversations” with buddies over WhatsApp to come back to the conclusion that she “can’t be known as a reliable or dependable witness”.
Mehta informed the Excessive Courtroom that the prosecution had insisted on not placing such inquiries to the prosecutrix and that she was not on trial, however the trial courtroom remained silent. “These are all embarrassing questions. We aren’t imagined to embarrass rape victims or molestation victims. Subsequently, the Supreme Courtroom has stated that the trial courtroom, whereas recording proof, will not be a publish workplace. The courtroom will not be supposed to take a seat there as a mere courtroom. They must take part and cease wherever one thing opposite to the statute is there,” he stated.
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Citing the courtroom’s reliance on the deposition of a witness who claimed that the prosecutrix had “flirtatious and sexual conversations” with buddies and acquaintances and WhatsApp chats because the proof, he stated, “That is character assassination… clearly prohibited below the Indian Proof Act. It shouldn’t have gone within the judgment, a lot much less gone into the consideration of the courtroom.”
“If that is the regulation which is to be accepted, then we’d be violating the statutory provision, the place the previous character of the prosecutrix is to not be questioned… This may by no means be a floor of defence. Within the current day… the technology… they ship such messages with some sexual overtones and grownup content material… that doesn’t imply that she is agreeing… (or) she is consenting to having sexual activity or oral intercourse,” he added.
In its judgment in 2021, the trial courtroom stated there was no corroborative proof supporting the allegations made by the complainant. “This can be very revealing that the prosecutrix’s account neither demonstrates any form of normative behaviour on her personal half – {that a} prosecutrix of sexual assault on consecutive two nights would possibly plausibly present nor does it present any such behaviour on the a part of the accused.” The trial courtroom had stated it was “unnatural” on the a part of the lady to message Tejpal about her location within the resort the place she was chaperoning a distinguished US actor.
