Shoma Chaudhary's house defaced by BJP leader

BJP leader Vijay Jolly and party workers Thursday defaced the name plate and also poured black paint in front of the residence of Tehelka's former managing editor Shoma Chaudhury.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said Chaudhury was suppressing facts and evidence against the magazine's editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexually assaulting a woman colleague.

The BJP, however, distanced itself from the incident.

The protest began soon after the news of Chaudhury's resignation came out Thursday afternoon.

Around 50 BJP members led by Jolly reached Chaudhury's house in Saket area in south Delhi and raised slogans against her.

Jolly painted the name plate black and also wrote a word with black paint.

He also poured black paint outside Chaudhary's house.

Police deployed outside the house somehow managed to disperse them.

"Shoma Chaudhury should be arrested for irresponsible statements. She was aware of the ill-doings of Tejpal. Despite that, she suppressed the matter to insulate the image of the organisation and her boss," Jolly said.

Senior party leader Nitin Gadkari said he heard that some workers protested outside Chaudhury's house but the party had nothing to do with it and it was not organised by the BJP.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said: "I will never agree with this method of protest. Both I and Arun Jaitley had told Jolly not to stage such a protest."

"Party president (Rajnath Singh) will take action against him (Jolly), but I totally condemn it," she said.

Meanwhile, police said they were going to register a case against Jolly. They were also waiting for a written complaint from Chaudhury.

Chaudhury's resignation came 10 days after a woman journalist with the news magazine wrote to her and accused Tejpal of sexual assault during a conference organised by the magazine in Goa earlier this month.