HC to hear Tarun Tejpal's anticipatory bail plea at 3.30 PM

The Delhi High Court today deferred till 3.30 PM the hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal in a sexual assault case on the ground that his lawyers were busy in the apex court.
"Put up for hearing at 3.30 PM," Justice Sunita Gupta said.
At the start of the hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Goa police, said he was ready to argue the case and had kept the morning hours only for it.
However, the counsel for Tejpal told the bench, "Senior advocate K T S Tulsi is busy arguing a part-heard matter in the Supreme Court and I seek pass over in this case."

Earlier, the court had issued notice to the Goa police for today and rejected the plea of Tejpal for grant of interim protection against arrest.
The Tehelka Editor, in his bail plea, had denied the allegation and accused Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar of taking undue interest in the case.

Tejpal has claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case at the behest of BJP. He has alleged that BJP has "unleashed the wrath of its vengeance upon him in the garb of the present FIR".
His bail plea was opposed by both the Goa and Delhi police. The judge had yesterday sought reply of the Goa police on the scribe's plea whose application for transit bail was opposed by the Delhi police.

The Goa police has registered the FIR against Tejpal for allegedly sexually assaulting his junior on November 7 and 8 at a hotel in Panaji.
The alleged incident happened in a lift in a five-star and the victim yesterday recorded her statement before the Goa police in Mumbai.
Senior advocate Tulsi had yesterday said in the court, "This has become a political battle. I am entitled to interim protection as has been the practice in this court.
"At best, the case is of section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and it is the figment of imagination that it has become a case of section 376 (rape) of the IPC.