Tejpal sent to judicial custody for 12 days

Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal was Wednesday remanded in 12 days in judicial custody by a court here.

Tejpal was presented before the court Wednesday after his extended four-day police custody period expired.

The district and sessions court passed the order after police argued that Tejpal should not be released on bail for fear of intimidating the victim and witnesses who have testified against him in the alleged rape case, or for destroying evidence against him.

The editor has spent 10 days in custody since his arrest Nov 30 for alleged sexual assault on a junior colleague in a Goa resort last month.

Besides the alleged sexual assault, Tejpal faces charges under sections like 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). These were slapped on him last week.

Tejpal has already been booked under sections 354-A (sexual harassment, physical contact, advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures, or any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature), 376 (rape) and 376(2)(k) (rape by a person of a woman in his custody taking advantage of his official position) of the IPC.

The police have already recorded the statements of the victim, three witnesses and Tehelka's former managing editor Shoma Chaudhury, sworn before a judicial magistrate. Sources said that the investigators had been unable to break Tejpal and extract a confession of crime from him.

Tejpal is alleged to have insisted to his investigators during interrogation that the sexual encounter with the victim was consensual.