Tarun Tejpal to appear in court Wednesday

Panaji – Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal will be produced in court Wednesday as his extended four-day police custody has ended.

Tejpal was arrested Nov 30 for allegedly raping a junior colleague in a resort in Goa last month.

He was initially remanded to six days in police custody, after which his remand was extended by four more days.

Tejpal has already been booked under section 354-A (sexual harassment, physical contact, advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures, or any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature), 376 (rape) and 376(2)(k) (rape by a person of a woman in his custody taking advantage of his official position) of IPC.

He has also been charged with section 341 (wrongful restraint) and section 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) last week.

The police have! already recorded the statements of the victim, three witnesses and Tehelka’s former managing editor Shoma Chaudhury sworn before a judicial magistrate even as sources said that the investigators had been unable to break Tejpal and extract a confession from him.

Tejpal is alleged to have insisted to his investigators during interrogation that the sexual encounter with the victim was consensual.