Tehelka case: Goa police likely to summon Shoma, three others

Former Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chowdhary and three other witnesses are likely to be summoned by Goa police to record their statement before a magistrate in the case of alleged sexual assault against the magazine's editor Tarun Tejpal.

"We have sought permission from the court to summon Chowdhary and three other witnesses and register their statement before the magistrate," a senior Crime Branch official said today.

The investigating agency had already recorded a statement of Chowdhary during the initial stage of investigation in the case by meeting her at the Tehelka office in New Delhi, before she quit the position.

Officials said that the statement of Chowdhary is very crucial for the case as she was the first person to have known about the alleged sexual assault.

The official said that all the four would be called after the court gives the date to record the statement.

Tejpal was arrested on November 30 by crime branch after his anticipatory bail petition was rejected by a sessions court. On December 1, he was remanded in six-day police custody by a court here.

A woman journalist, who was employed with Tehelka, had accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her twice on November 7 and 8 in a lift in a five-star hotel in Goa.

He has been booked under Sections 354A (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 376 (2)(K) (custodial rape) of IPC.

The woman journalist had mentioned in her statement that she had interacted with three of her colleagues soon after the alleged assault happened at a Goa hotel lift.