The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on former Tehelka magazine editor Tarun Tejpal’s plea seeking discharge from the sexual assault case against him even as it posed questions on his apology to the complainant, who was his junior colleague, after the alleged incident. “If nothing had happened, you would not have sent apologies. Something inappropriate must have happened,” Justice Arun Mishra, sitting with Justices M R Shah and B R Gavai, remarked as senior counsel Vikas Singh, appearing for Tejpal, read out the complainant’s statement which she had recorded before a magistrate. Singh argued that the charges were “tailor-made” and referred to the complainant’s conduct after the alleged incident. But Justice Mishra said, “If this narration (complainant’s statement) is believed to be correct, then nobody on this Earth can discharge you.” Tejpal’s counsel wanted the court to look at the CCTV footage from the hotel lobby, showing the woman emerging from the lift in which she was allegedly assaulted. Singh contended: “Her conduct does not support her statement that says she ran out of the lift. The footage shows no such attempt. Anybody can make allegations of this nature and get away.” The argument seemingly failed to cut ice with the bench, which said, “How can she be disbelieved, and this is not the stage to consider all this.” Appearing for Goa Police, which registered the FIR in the case, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta countered Singh and said that the contentions should be raised during the trial. He said there is “ample material in the form of contemporaneous emails”. The court made it clear that it would not go into merits of the case. The woman had accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her inside a lift at a five-star hotel in Goa during an event in 2013. Tejpal is currently on bail.
