Managing editor of Tehelka Shoma Choudhury on Friday said that the initial action of having editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal step down from the job for only six months was driven partly by financial reasons. In a series of interviews throughout the day,she made repeated references to a different version of the events but did not elaborate. Then she said she was willing to cooperate with police if the victim lodged a complaint but later added that Tehelka would not proactively approach the police as it is the prerogative of the victim. This despite the fact that the Goa Police had already got in touch with her. Choudhury told NDTV that considerations like feasibility of the magazine to run and journalists to keep their jobs were playing on her mind when the e-mail on Tejpals recusal was circulated within the organisation. We are a small institution and one is not able to assess if he (Tejpal) says he will resign,does it mean financial closure for the institution,does that mean everyone here has to resign. there was for me as managing editor,consideration for the institution as well, she said. In her interview to CNN-IBN,Choudhury admitted that her organisation did not have the institutional mechanism as prescribed in Supreme Courts Visakha judgment. She said that the committee under Urvashi Butalia would look into both versions of the incident. My impression was that she (the victim) wanted an institutional response and driven by my need to do right I overrode Taruns version and got him to tender an unconditional apology. Now if this is going into the legal domain it has to be investigated before jumping to any conclusions, she said. Choudhury said she had received the victims e-mail only on November 18 and completely stood by her account,not even cross-checking it with other colleagues till Tejpal had stepped down. Regardless of consensual or non-consensual issues,there had been a transgression,she admitted,and Taruns email could be construed as a public admission of guilt or remorse. She claimed there is also a different set of e-mail exchanges than the ones that have become public,which bear out her devastation and Tejpals regret. She also strongly objected to BJP leader Arun Jaitley terming the incident as rape on the basis of one version. She defended her decision of not going to the police following the complaint,saying it was the prerogative of the victim alone. She said if the girls version was correct and proved so criminally or legally,she would certainly see it as rape or attempt to rape.
