4 min readAug 6, 2026 11:05 AM IST
Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal has been convicted of rape in a 2013 case after the Bombay High Court overturned a Goa trial court ruling. Tejpal, 62, was also convicted of sexual harassment and the use of criminal force against a woman.
UPDATE | Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal jailed for 10 years in 2013 rape case
In court this morning he sought leniency citing his age. “I am 62, and I believe I am a victim. I have a wife. There’s not much else to say. All that I can say is we can go and appeal. Please be lenient with me,” Tejpal told the court.
Tarun Tejpal could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years since the court convicted him under provisions that carry such a sentence, and this may extend to life imprisonment.
Tarun Tejpal rape case
A woman journalist had accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her in a hotel elevator on November 7 and November 8, 2013. In 2021, a sessions court in Goa acquitted Tejpal, saying the complainant “did not demonstrate any kind of normative behaviour” a victim of sexual assault “might plausibly show”.
What the Goa court said
The sessions court had said the woman’s messages to the accused established she was “neither traumatised nor terrified” and that this “completely belies” the prosecution’s case.
The Goa government subsequently challenged the acquittal in the High Court.
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What the state argued
During the hearings before the High Court, the state argued that the manner in which the trial court dealt with the case was “perturbing”. The state said the lower court had virtually laid down guidelines on how the victim “should” respond in such circumstances, calling it a “classic case of perverse findings”.
RECAP | Tarun Tejpal rape case: Goa questions court’s silence on woman’s ‘character assassination’
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state of Goa, argued that the trial court had virtually put the complainant on trial. He told the court “embarrassing” questions put to the complainant during her cross-examination – whether it is ‘immoral’ to have consensual sex, consume alcohol, or smoke cigarettes voluntarily, or whether she had conversations containing “sexual overtones” with friends – should not have been asked or taken into consideration by the trial court.
Tarun Tejpal’s ‘apology’ email
Mehta referred to an email from Tejpal to the complainant after the alleged incident in which he apologised for his lapse of judgment and expressed shame, arguing that such statements amounted to an admission that an encounter took place.
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Opposing the state’s plea, Tejpal’s counsel, Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda, claimed contradictions in the complainant’s version of events. Relying on CCTV footage, the defence argued that the surveillance footage did not support her allegations that Tejpal pulled the complainant into the lift or forcibly dragged her back into it.
Tarun Tejpal’s defence
The defence argued that the complainant’s “conduct” after the alleged assault was inconsistent with the prosecution’s case that she was traumatised and fearful.
Citing WhatsApp chats, CCTV footage, emails, witness testimony and other material placed on record during the trial, the defence argued the complainant continued to attend events and social gatherings and, after the alleged incidents, visited Hollywood actor Robert De Niro’s hotel suite at night, and that her “movements” in the week after the alleged assault were “far from constrained”.
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RECAP | Tarun Tejpal counsel claims complainant not ‘sterling witness’, points to ‘contradictions’
The defence argued that the prosecution had misinterpreted Tejpal’s apology emails as an admission of a sexual encounter. None of the apology emails contained any admission of a consensual physical or sexual encounter and only referred to a consensual verbal conversation of a sexual nature, the defence said.
