Tehelka logs off citing financial problems; says we are down, not out

A year and a half after its expose of corruption in defence deals, news/current affairs portal Tehelka has logged off, ‘temporarily&#1...

A year and a half after its expose of corruption in defence deals, news/current affairs portal Tehelka has logged off, ‘temporarily’. A message posted on the site says: ‘‘Due to financial and technical problems we are unable to update the site.’’

However, Aniruddha Bahal, the portal’s investigative chief and one of its promotees, dismissed queries about its imminent closure. ‘‘We have been facing problems for the last one year. We have not been able to pay our staff but we are not closing down’’, he said.

The scam, exposed in March 2001, led to the resignation of George Fernandes as Defence Minister and the setting up of the Venkatswami Commission of inquiry but was also followed by a series of events — which Tehelka claims to be a witch-hunt — that have placed the portal in severe financial difficulties.

Last year, the portal’s promoter Shankar Sharma was arrested on charges of rigging the stock market. Earlier this year, reporter Kumar Badal was arrested on charges of abetting the killing of endangered wild animals, while shooting a documentary for the portal.

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