Don't politicise rape, says woman journalist

Says "deeply concerned" and "very disturbed" about suggestions that her complaint against Tejpal was a part of "a pre-election political conspiracy"

A former Tehelka woman journalist who has accused founder-editor Tarun Tejpal of rape Friday urged political parties to refrain from politicizing the issue.

"I call upon our political parties to resist the temptation to turn a very important discussion about gender, power and violence into a conversation about themselves," she said in a statement here.

She said she was "deeply concerned" and "very disturbed" about suggestions that her complaint against Tejpal was a part of "a pre-election political conspiracy".

"I categorically refute such insinuations," she said in her statement posted on Kafila.org.

The woman journalist quit Tehelka after accusing Tejpal of sexually molesting her in a luxury hotel in Goa this month. Tejpal Friday left for Goa in response to police summons.