Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Goa O.P Mishra on Saturday said that that there was no specific CCTV camera inside the hotel elevator where the Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal is alleged to have sexually assaulted the journalist working for the magazine.
He also confirmed that a team of Goa police has reached New Delhi to interrogate Tejpal.
“Our team has reached New Delhi. We have been able to obtain the CCTV footage from the venue that is being examined. The hotel authorities have told us that there was no specific CCTV camera in the elevator but we are examining other cameras. I would request you to be very sensitive and careful about the identity of the victim,” he told media here today.
Mishra also said that an email has been sent to Tehalka’s Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury, requesting her cooperation with the police.
A four-member team of the Crime Branch of Goa Police is in Delhi to investigate Tejpal and Shoma Chaudhury. They will also collect evidence regarding the case.
Chaudhury had earlier in the day disagreed with the suggestion or allegation that she was avoiding going to the police to depose on the matter.
While initially maintaining that it was not for her to go to the police, and that it was the young woman journalist’s right to decide how to proceed in the case, Chaudhury said: “The information to the media is wrong. I have sent a mail to the police. There is a lot of wrong information that is floating around. I cannot possibly be giving any evidence. I am cooperating with the Delhi Police.”
Tejpal has suggested that the young journalist’s version of events is not entirely accurate.
But in an email to her sent on Tuesday, he had admitted to a “shameful lapse of judgement that led me to attempt a sexual liaison with you on two occasions on 7 November and 8 November 2013, despite your clear reluctance that you did not want such attention from me.”
The journalist has not yet filed a police complaint. The Goa Police was instructed by the state government to investigate her allegations, contained in the email by her to Ms Chaudhury on Monday. That email was leaked to the press.
The FIR against Tejpal lists rape by a person in a position of authority over the woman, an offence that carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison. (ANI)