Tarun Tejpal’s partial list of sins – Arvind Kumar

Posted on Nov 24, 2013 by VOI

Tarun Tejpal

In an interview in 2007, this is how the now-disgraced editor of Tehelka and a leading member of the Psecularati, Tarun Tejpal justified the Godhra train burning incident.

I mean, our investigation reveals that what seems to have happened is that on the railway station at Godhra, there was an altercation between the pilgrims and Muslim hawkers who were selling their wares on the platform. And there was, it seems, an attempt to abduct a young Muslim girl by these pilgrims. Then, in the course of it, altercation. Then, when the train leaves the station, it seems somebody pulls the chain to stop the train, and Muslim mobs from the adjoining slums arrive in large numbers and attack that particular buggy. And in the course of this entire assault, the buggy gets burned down, tragically killing these fifty-nine pilgrims.

Notice how the 59 Hindus who were killed are casually mentioned as though their deaths should be mentioned only as part the footnote. Also notice that the alleged attempt to abduct a Muslim girl is presented as a sufficient reason to torch 59 innocent Hindus to death.

What one cannot notice on reading the above account is that although Tarun Tejpal’s actions are real, his allegations of an attempted abduction by the pilgrims at Godhra are wholly imaginary. Even his claim that the description of the sequence of events resulted from Tehelka’s investigation is a fabricated claim.

The claim about the abduction was put up soon after the Godhra train attack on an Islamist website named ummahnews.com, and an embellished version of this claim did the rounds as a chain email. The email was carefully worded to make it appear authentic and it even listed the names of two reporters, Anil Soni and Neelam Soni, along with their telephone numbers. We know that these claims on the website and in the email are false because two intrepid journalists, Rajeev Srinivasan and Varsha Bhosle, in the interest of arriving at the truth, contacted the reporters named in the email and were told that the allegations were bogus. 

Tejpal’s claim that the story about the abduction of the girl was the result of Tehelka’s investigation is not only dishonest but also amounts to plagiarism from an email authored by an unknown person. This would have mattered to him if he was interested in the truth, but seeking the truth has never been the intent of the Psecularati.

In a strange twist of fate, Rajeev Srinivasan’s article is entitled “Predatory Intelligentsia.” Tarun Tejpal has now shown himself to be a predator and not just in the intellectual sense. He not only seems to have planned the vicious attack on the helpless young woman—someone young enough to be his daughter and someone who has known him since her childhood— but seems to have stalked her and followed up his attack with intimidating threats. His actions have resulted in a strange response from the Psecularati. Salil Tripathi, a leftist who was once on the payroll of Amnesty International, has now written, “…if Tejpal is innocent, he should return with his honour intact to the editorship of Tehelka.”

It is highly unlikely that this young lady was Tejpal’s first victim as his behaviour does not seem to be an exception to the rule among the editors in the Psecularati. In 1999, Rediff carried an article by Krishna Prasad entitled “Editor the Great.” The article described an editor stalking a young journalist and harassing her. The title of the article hints at the name of the editor. While the entire article makes for disturbing reading, what is even more disturbing yet again is the silence from the Psecularati which has not revealed the name of the editor. It is important that the victim of that editor come forward and identify the editor. The country should stand by her if the media gangs up against her. This is the only way that we can fight crimes against women in the media and elsewhere.

It is not that members of the Psecularati don’t know the names of editors who treat women as sex objects and use intimidation and other bullying tactics against them. Apparently, this behaviour is part of the Psecularati subculture, and the names of those who harass and molest women is common knowledge among both Indian journalists and foreign journalists stationed in India. When members of this club write about violence against women, it is supposedly a private joke among them in some bizarre way which only they can comprehend. The more dramatic the description of a rape, the more laughs it is supposed to elicit among the Psecularati journalists.

While it can in no way be proved that it was intended as a private joke for the Psecularati, Celia Dugger, a New York Times journalist who has a history of cooking up sordid stories against Hindus and who has quoted Tarun Tejpal in her articles, once wrote a fantastic piece of fiction while describing the riots in Gujarat.

Young women were stripped and raped in broad daylight, then doused with kerosene and set on fire. A pregnant woman’s belly was slit open, her fetus raised skyward on the tip of a sword and then tossed onto one of the fires that blazed across the city.

Mixing fictional descriptions into what is supposed to be factual reporting is by no means exclusive to the New York Times. In the New York Review of Books, Pankaj Mishra (who also writes for the New York Times) rationalized the carnage of Hindus by writing, “Hindu activists were said to have tried to kidnap a Muslim girl and take her into their carriage.” Guess where Mishra got this from? Tarun Tejpal?

The justification of the Godhra train firebombing raises an important question. In the light of the revelations about the rape of a young journalist by Tarun Tejpal, does it now mean that it would be okay for mobs of people to descend upon Tehelka’s office and burn it down? – IndiaFacts, 22 November 2013

» Arvind Kumar can be reached at arvind@classical-liberal.net. Between 2004 and 2010, the author published the 4M Report, a satirical newsletter with the banner slogan, “your regular dose of pseudosecularism.”

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8 Responses

  1. Gururajen's avatar
    Gururajen, on Sep 7, 2014 at 11:29 am said:

    Secularist are number one frauds in this world they practice their religions in the house and preach against outside .Unfortunately people of india votes for this frauds for a long time.They are backed by world cheaters communist and left wing preaching english speaking magazines,money lending capitalist who plunders the nation with show business,no commitment to country’s cause.they never spend from their earnings to any body but collect funds and use half of it and steal the other half with bogus receipts.I hope it will take our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji some time to bring this rascals to books as per indian laws.Sanathana Dharma (self introspection and self discipline) is the only way which is followed by Bharatha bhumi for thousands of years can only save our country from this unholy,inhuman and selfish people

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  3. Admin's avatar
    Admin, on Nov 28, 2013 at 9:34 pm said:

    Resignation letter sent by woman journalist to Tehelka – NDTV.com – November 26, 2013

    A week after accusing Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal of sexually assaulting her in Goa, the woman journalist has resigned from the news magazine because she is “deeply traumatised by the lack of support offered by the organisation” and believes Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhary has tried to orchestrate a “cover-up”.

    Here’s the full text of the letter sent by the woman journalist to Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury:

    Ms. Chaudhury,

    I am resigning from my position as ****** at Tehelka magazine, with immediate effect, because Tehelka’s Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal sexually molested me on two occasions in November this year.

    I am deeply traumatised by the lack of support offered by the organisation.

    In such circumstances, it is untenable for me to continue to work for this organisation.

    At this moment, I would like to present the following facts to support my claim:

    1. I was sexually molested by Tarun Tejpal on two occasions, the 7th and 8th of November 2013 at the annual Think festival in Goa this year. In the emails of apology that followed my complaint to you about Mr Tejpal’s grievous sexual misconduct, he admitted to the fact, and apologised unconditionally.

    2. I requested, at the very least, for Mr Tejpal to acknowledge this apology publicly to the staff and bureau of Tehelka. While I did not want this acknowledgement to have graphic details, I asked that the words “sexual misconduct” be included. In a phone conversation with me, you asked that he be recused from doing so because he had already admitted to sexual molestation in his emails, and because we needed to “protect the institution”. In this conversation, I said, “I trust you to do the right thing”.

    3. In the public acknowledgement sent to the bureau, Mr Tejpal and you referred to his act of sexual violation as “an untoward incident”- this was not an attempt to “protect the institution” but in fact, an attempt to cover up what had really occurred-the act of sexual molestation, an admission of the facts that Mr Tejpal had “attempted sexual liaison” with me (to quote his email) on two occasions despite my “reluctance to receive such attention”. Further, in conversations with my colleagues, you admitted to them that you did not see the need to set up an anti-sexual harassment cell as per the Vishaka guidelines, because you did not contest my version of what had occurred on the nights of 7th and 8th of November.

    4. In your appearances on national news channels, you first attempted to establish that I was “satisfied” with Tehelka’s actions, when only one of my immediate demands from the organisation had been met-namely, that Mr Tejpal had unconditionally apologised for sexually molesting me in private emails to you and I. His public acknowledgement of the apology did not include any reference to his grievous sexual misconduct, and you had still failed to set up an anti-sexual harassment cell as per Vishaka guidelines. This could, in no way, have left me “satisfied”. Further, I had responded to both of Mr Tejpal’s emails (cc’d to you and the three colleagues I had confided everything to since the 7th of November) clarifying:

    that his behaviour could not be described as “sexual liaison”, and that was in fact an act of sexual molestation and a violation of bodily integrity and trust, since it occurred (by his own admission) despite my refusal.

    A sexual act carried out without consent cannot be justified on any basis.

    That after Mr Tejpal (by his own admission) had referred to his position of power over me in the organisation, he did not withdraw this statement as his emails allege.

    You continued to ignore my rebuttals to these emails, while insisting, in public, that I was satisfied.

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  4. punit's avatar
    punit, on Nov 24, 2013 at 1:57 pm said:

    addicted to your blog sir!!,its hard to find any such blog in “hindi”,they all use emotion,in excessive amounts in any hindi thing,be it a tv news or a blog or any thing.my friends and relatives, they all are hindi speakers.but whatever….a job well done by u guys!!,bravo!!.keep it up.its very rare to find such informative blogs which is speaking about hindu rights,they are also human beings after all.

    Like

  5. Ram Ohri's avatar
    Ram Ohri, on Nov 24, 2013 at 12:57 pm said:

    No one speaks or write truth about Tehelka which to me appears to be a shadowy advocacy group. Tejpal is a profane Hindu-hating scribe. Most surprising is the fact that he is pronouncedly pro-SIMI idiot. There is a rumour that he could be an ISI spy. Could he be the notorious Honeybee ?

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  6. Gautam Sen's avatar
    Gautam Sen, on Nov 24, 2013 at 9:37 am said:

    The SOB is going to get away with it because the court action will drag on endlessly and disappear from the public radar. Virago Shoma now has an interest in the victim’s version being repudiated since she has been caught with her undergarments around her knees, so to speak! She will stand aside and wring her hands, but decline to come to her defence, citing the primacy of legal proceedings.

    The very powerful and astute people threatened by the ‘untoward incident’ (yeah!) evidently managed to ensure the disappearance and crucial CCTV footage that would have nailed Tejpal. He is now accusing the victim of lying and her version of what happened inside the lift cannot be independently verified. The claim that his apology was forced out of him by an irate Shoma, a depiction that she is already playing up herself, suits them both.

    Now wait for an attack on the victim’s integrity, truthfulness and sexual life in the foul sleaze that is the Indian media! And she will be crucified in court, if she dares allow Tejpal’s prosecution to proceed. She is probably being advised to settle out of court, possibly for a significant payment (50-100 crore rupees is peanuts in the circumstances).

    Nailing [Tejpal] was never going to be easy and I doubt if his many pals in the BJP will wish to impugn him personally. No doubt Congress proxies have enough dirt on them, on file, to sink all and sundry, with their own sexual scandals!! Even I know of sexual peccadilloes involving three BJP national leaders.

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  7. Gautam Sen's avatar
    Gautam Sen, on Nov 24, 2013 at 9:32 am said:

    Would like to know who was ‘carousing’ with whom in the Tehelka office and if it had any bearing on the calculated tearful admission of a lapse, from a mistress of the black arts, devoted to shafting hapless Hindus with endless lies – ultimately on whose behalf it would be revealing to know. The elephant in the room is not the blinding reality that female solidarity is a chimera, especially in India, unerringly subordinated to family and social class loyalties (cf. the abomination that is the NCW), but the huge oppression (comprising rape, beatings and domestic servitude) suffered by women and girls of an entire community. Now that isn’t so easy for intrepid feminist journalists to investigate since it would quickly lead to dismissals, preceded by fatwas and threats of murder. And, oh, yes, alarm political parties who will sell their proverbial grandmother to keep their noxious vote banks in good humour! But the gods occasionally intervene to deliver their stern verdict on the low life who dominate the public space, in India most of all! Inshallah!

    Like

  8. Admin's avatar
    Admin, on Nov 24, 2013 at 7:29 am said:

    Tarun Tajpal & Shoma Chaudhury

    Tehelka managing editor Shoma Chaudhury says the magazine won’t make a police complaint against its co-founder-editor Tarun Tejpal. The cover-up of the alleged rape is now in full swing and the victim will be discredited and maligned. So much for women’s rights and justice at Tehelka. Shoma Chaudhury has mutated from a feminist activist to a Dilli brothel madam!

    TARUN TEJPAL, THE STORY – Hindu Voice Bulletin No 47 (PDF Edition), 17-23 November, 2013. Source http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2013/11/tarun-tejpal-story.html

    [This excerpt is part of the complaint written by Tejpal’s victim and sent to the TEHELKA magazine’s managing editor Shoma Chaudhury.]

    On the night of 7 th November 2013, the opening night of Tehelka’s Think festival, I had discharged my duties for the day as the chaperone for Mr Robert De Niro. As it was Mr De Niro and his daughter’s first night in Goa and at the festival, my editor in chief Mr Tarun Tejpal accompanied Mr De Niro, Drena De Niro (his daughter) and I to Mr De Niro’s suite to wish him goodnight. (As his chaperone, my work was to be available all day to Mr De Niro and Drena, take them sightseeing, make sure they were well looked after in Goa and at the Hyatt – until they retired to their suite at night. )

    As we left the suite, Mr Tejpal and I were in conversation — I have known him since I was a child, he had worked closely with my father who was also a journalist, and after my father’s accident Mr Tejpal had always been a paternal figure to me. He was responsible for offering me my first job, and was always just a phone call away whenever I needed his advice on a story or life. His daughter, Tiya Tejpal and I are very close friends as well.

    As we made our way out of the elevator of Block 7 at the Grand Hyatt, Mr Tejpal held my arm and pulled me back into the lift. He said – “Let’s go wake up Bob” (Mr De Niro) and I asked him why he wanted to do that. I then realized that Mr Tejpal was simply pressing buttons on the lift’s panel to make the elevator stay in circuit, preventing it from stopping anywhere, and for the doors to open.

    At this point, he began to kiss me — from the first moment of his doing so, I asked him to stop, citing several reasons, including my friendship to Tiya, my closeness to his family, the fact that he had known me since I was a child, the fact that I worked for Tehelka and for Shoma Chaudhury – who is my managing editor and mentor. It was like talking to a deaf person. Mr Tejpal lifted my dress up, went down on his knees and pulled my underwear down. He attempted to perform oral sex on me as I continued to struggle and hysterically asked him to stop. At that moment he began to try and penetrate me with his fingers, I became scared and pushed him hard and asked him to stop the lift. He would not listen. The lift stopped on the ground floor as Mr Tejpal’s hands were on me and could not press the button for yet another floor to keep it in circuit. As soon as the doors opened, I picked up my underwear and began walking out of the elevator rapidly – he was still following me, asking me what the matter was.

    I said “It’s all wrong. I work for you and Shoma.” He said first “It’s alright to be in love with more than one person,” and then he said, “Well, this is the easiest way for you to keep your job.” I was walking still faster, blinking back tears.

    By this time, we had made our way from Block 7 to the main lawns of the Grand Hyatt, where I walked into the grassy dinner area full of people and Mr Tejpal walked off towards the performance area. Right as soon as he was out of sight, I took a taxi back to my hotel – the International Centre for Goa, where the Tehelka staff was staying, and went to the room where the Literary Editor Shougat Dasgupta and the Photo Editor Ishan Tankha were staying. I also called another friend and colleague – investigative reporter G Vishnu to the room and told them what had occurred. While the four of us were talking in the balcony, Mr Tejpal sent me a text message from his personal phone number at 1.17 am, which said “The fingertips”. This was the extent he had managed to penetrate me before I pushed him and ran out of the lift. I told the people with me on the balcony about this. Some of us considered resigning as soon as Think was over. I called my boyfriend Aman Sethi in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from Ishan Tankha’s iPhone and told him what had happened.

    I was confused, hurt and really, really scared. At that point I did not want to lose my job. And so the next morning, I went about my work determined not to give Mr Tejpal or Tehelka a reason to fire me, as I was sure they would do once this story got out. At a few points of the day, I discussed the events of the previous night with Shougat Dasgupta, G Vishnu and Ishan Tankha, who were concerned about me after the state they had seen me in the previous night. In the afternoon, I accompanied Mr De Niro, his daughter, Sir V S Naipaul, Lady Naipaul and Mr Tejpal’s wife to the Governor’s bungalow for lunch.

    Given the company we were in, I did not make any mention of what had occurred to Ms Geetan Batra, Mr Tejpal’s wife. Once I had escorted Mr. De Niro back to his room post lunch, he expressed a desire to attend one of the sessions at the Main Hall. I brought him down to the Green Room, where Mr Tejpal found us, and asked me to bring Mr De Niro back down for Mr Amitabh Bachchan’s session as he wanted the two to meet. I took Mr De Niro and his daughter shopping to Panjim, and brought them back in time for Mr Bachchan’s session as instructed. Once the session was done, Mr Tejpal, Mr De Niro, Mr Bachchan and a few other members of the film industry, lawyers, politicians etc were supposed to meet at the Block 7 Grand Club for drinks.

    I escorted Mr De Niro and Drena to this bar, told them I would return to my hotel, change, and be right back. While I was getting dressed at my hotel, Mr Tejpal called me from Thakur Ji’s phone (Thakurji is the caretaker and manager of Tehelka’s Bombay office premises) and asked me where I was. I informed him I was just about to leave for the Grand Hyatt. In the taxi I noticed he had aready sent me two text messages on my phone which said “Where r u?” at 8:29 and then “??” at 8:42. from his personal number.

    I replied with the following messages: “On my way to the lounge” 8.42 pm, “Had to sort out a lost package for Drena and get a bit presentable. See you in 10” at 8.44 pm and “Call tee she needs you” at 8.47 pm as Tiya had messaged me asking to help her find Tarun. At this point I was trying to be as normal and professional as possible and somehow get through my duties.

    Five minutes later, as I was walking into the Grand Club at Block 7, Mr Tejpal was coming out of the lounge. He pointed at

    me asking me to stop. I was already worried that I was late and that Mr De Niro had asked for me. Mr Tejpal came to me and said “Come up with me, we have to get something from Bob’s room”. I was frightened that this would lead to a repeat of the previous night and so I said, “What does he need? I’ll go get it.” I was scared of getting into the lift with him again, and more terrified that he was going to try and take me into a room this time. By this time he was holding me by the wrist and had taken me into the lift (which is barely a few steps away from the lobby of block 7 where he had asked me to wait). When the doors closed, he started to try and kiss me again. I said “Tarun, please, no, just stop,” he pulled away, smiled, patted my cheek and said “Why? Ok. I’ll stop.” I said again “This just isn’t right. Tiya is my best friend. I had lunch with Geetan today. “

    He smiled again and just for a moment I thought I had appealed to his better sense. I turned away from him, desperately waiting for the door to open (there are only three floors in Block 7 (G, 1 and 2), we were between floors). Within seconds of my turning around, he started to lift up my dress. He lifted it all the way up and said “You’re unbelievable”. The door opened on the second floor, on Mr De Niro’s floor — and he said again – “The universe is telling us something” to which I said “I’m taking the stairs” and started to walk out. He pulled me back in, sensing that I was on the verge of hysteria — by this point, he was totally comfortable physically manhandling me, but sensing my sheer panic, he did not touch me until the lift reached the ground floor. Right as the doors were about to open, he patted my behind once more.

    I walked out of the lift, went to the Grand Club and immediately informed Ishan Tankha that Mr Tejpal had tried to molest me again. Ishan said “Again? What the f**k is wrong with him?” He was completely disgusted and said once more that we should just resign immediately. As I was to accompany Mr De Niro to the dining area, I somehow composed myself. Mr De Niro was mobbed by fans – and I had to take him away from the main garden to the Capiz Bar. I was sitting at the Capiz Bar with Mr De Niro and his daughter when Tiya Tejpal came there to join us.

    This was the first time the two of us had really met since the incident of the previous night. Since I had moved to Mumbai about a year and a half ago, Tiya had grown to become one of my closest friends. She lives across the road from my house in Mumbai and barely a day had passed when the two of us did not meet or talk to each other constantly. She was sitting beside me, and Mr De Niro was absorbed in conversation with his daughter. I could not keep something of this magnitude from her. I told her she would hate me for what I was telling her – but that Mr Tejpal had tried to molest me on these two separate occasions. I said “He tried to shove his tongue down my throat and then took my panties off”, when Tiya replied saying “I saw him do this to a woman when I was thirteen, so it doesn’t surprise me anymore,” but she was clearly disgusted. Tiya left the Capiz Bar right after this. In half an hour, Mr De Niro and Drena asked to be dropped back to their room. They were extremely upset at the day’s events because Mr De Niro had all but been assaulted by fans at the dinner table, and they asked me to convey this to Mr Tejpal. When I came down from Block 7, I found Mr Tejpal sitting at a table with several people and called him away from the table, but still in full view of everyone, so I could relay Mr De Niro’s message privately.

    I said “Bob is really upset about tonight, he got mobbed really badly..” to which Mr Tejpal replied “I don’t give a f**k about Bob. How could you tell Tiya what happened?” I said “Tarun, I told you Tiya and I are close and what you did wasn’t okay, I had to tell her,” to which he said “She’s my daughter. Do you even understand what the word means? Just get away from me, I’m so f**king pissed off with you right now.”

    I left from the spot crying, found Tiya outside her room in the main performance area and asked her what she had said to her father. She said “There was no other way. As soon as you told me I wished you hadn’t, but you can’t tell me what to say to him – I told him to keep it in his pants.” I said “I’m probably going to lose my job over this”, she agreed, but also said “It’ll be a bad phase but it’ll pass.” On this night as well, I left the Grand Hyatt and went to my hotel, found Shougat Dasgupta, Ishan Tankha and G Vishnu and told them what had happened. I also called my boyfriend and told him that Mr Tejpal was aware of the fact that I wasn’t staying quiet, and that he was extremely angry that I had told his daughter. The next morning, I called my mother and told her everything that had happened. Everyone was most worried for my safety and advised me to leave Think as soon as possible — however since my day’s work involved me staying away from the Grand Hyatt and staying at a completely different part of Goa for the day with Mr De Niro and his daughter, I felt temporarily safe. At this time MrTejpal sent me the following texts from his personal number.

    1. “I hope you told Tiya that it was just drunken banter, and nothing else” To which I replied – “I told her we were both drunk” – because it was true that everyone had had a few drinks on the first night. But not the second, when he assaulted me minutes after I had reached the Grand Hyatt. However, this was the first time Mr Tejpal had said anything to me after lashing out at me the previous night, and I was still very afraid of him.

    He then sent me a second message: 2. “And just banter, nothing else” – to which I did not reply, because there was no way what he had done to me could have been described as “banter”.

    Sensing that I had clammed up at his attempt to sugar-coat what really happened, he sent me a third message: 3. “Why?? What’s happened??” I did not reply to this message. Within minutes, he sent me a fourth message, one that convinced me he saw absolutely nothing wrong with what he had done, and was in fact now trying to shame me for talking to Tiya:

    4. “I can’t believe u went and mentioned even the smallest thing to her. What an absence of any understanding of a parent child relationship.”

    After this message, I made sure to stay away from Mr Tejpal except when we were in extremely public situations only – such as the Speakers Green Room at the Hyatt, or the lobby of the hotel. That evening as well, I steered completely clear of him. He made no mention of anything that had occurred the next day, and the only thought on my mind was to get Mr De Niro on his plane and leave Think. I had to speak to Mr Tejpal several times on Sunday the 9th of November to coordinate Mr De Niro’s travel plans, but in these calls he made no mention of anything that had occurred. Once I dropped Mr De Niro to the Goa Airport at 4.30 pm , I had no further contact with Mr Tejpal.

    However, on 16.11.2013, Mr Tejpal messaged me a number of times 1. “Have you spoken to Tee? Is she Ok?” To which I replied: “Why would she be ok about the fact that you sexually assaulted her best friend, that is me?”

    2. “What’s with saying this awful stuff??” To which I replied: Do not send me any messages. You are lying and you know that. 3. “Oh is that so? I cherished you like one of my best kids always, all these years; and because of one drunken banter you so easily say these awful things.

    To which I replied : It was twice Tarun, not once and it was no banter. You did the most horrible things to me and I certainly was not drunk. I asked you to stop repeatedly.

    4. “Oh so that’s what you told Tee. No wonder she’s so madly upset. Its ok. Am not going to contest anything with her. Will let time and my love heal what it can.”

    5. “Don’t think I’ve been more saddened in the longest time” I have no doubt that Mr Tejpal was trying to establish his innocence in a devious manner. If he needed to get in touch with his daughter, he could have done so anytime he desired, through his wife or daughter or nephew or anyone from his family without messaging me about her, or falsely claiming that all that happened was ‘a drunken banter’. This was no banter, it was most clearly sexual assault. As a reporter for Tehelka who writes on violence against women, I suddenly find myself in the horrific situation of discovering what it is like to be on the receiving end of this violence from a powerful man I once deeply admired and respected. I truly hope that the idea of Tehelka is still intact – and that you will conduct an inquiry into this matter at the earliest. — Hindu Voice Bulletin No 47, 17-23 November, 2013

    See FirstPost news item here which confirms the victim’s complaint above.

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