PANAJI: Former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court of Bombay at Goa’s August 6 verdict convicting him in the 2013 rape case and sentencing him to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
Tejpal’s Special Leave Petition challenges both his conviction and sentence. The High Court had overturned his 2021 acquittal and directed him to surrender within four weeks.
His plea comes a day after the Goa government approached the Supreme Court seeking enhancement of his sentence to life imprisonment. The State has challenged only the quantum of punishment and concurrent running of sentences, and not the High Court’s finding of guilt.
The case relates to allegations that Tejpal sexually assaulted a junior colleague inside a hotel lift in Goa during the 2013 Tehelka ThinkFest. The High Court convicted him after finding the trial court’s appreciation of evidence to be “not only unreasonable but perverse”.
