Tehelka case: Tarun Tejpal undergoes DNA, potency test

mangaloretoday.com

Panaji, Dec 2: Tehelka Founder Tarun Tejpal was on Monday taken by the police to the Goa Medical College for a detailed medical examination. It has been learnt that as part of the procedure the tests will include DNA and potency test.

Tejpal spent his second night in police custody on Sunday. Sources have told CNN-IBN that Tejpal could be taken to the hotel where he could be asked to reconstruct the crime scene.

He has been sent to six days of custodial interrogation. Tejpal was grilled for 5 hours by the police on Sunday. The Goa Police recorded the statements of the three Tehelka staffers, who the complainant spoke to after the incident.

 

They will be treated as witnesses and could depose before a magistrate to make the case stronger. Judicial Magistrate Shama Joshi ordered six days’ police custody of Tejpal after the prosecution sought his remand for 14 days.

Once they got him in their custody, Crime Branch officials took the Tehelka founder to their headquarters in Dona Paula and began questioning him on the sexual assault allegedly committed by him on his colleague in a hotel lift twice early last month. The questioning was over around 8 PM and he was taken back to lock up, police sources said. The interrogation will resume on Monday.

The lock-up is located inside the Police Headquarters in Panaji, overlooking the office of the Director General of Police (DGP). Police sources added that he remained calm after his arrest, during medical check-up and also in the lock-up.

He was accompanied by his lawyer and his family joined him outside the Police Headquarters, before he was taken to the lock-up. He was supplied with a new pair of clothes by his family, as allowed by the court.

A woman journalist employed with Tehelka had accused its editor Tejpal of sexually assaulting her twice on November 7 and 8 in a lift in a five star hotel in Goa. He has been booked under Sections 354A (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 376 (2)(K) (custodial rape) of IPC.

Tejpal, who was arrested at 9 PM on Saturday after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by a District and Sessions Judge, was brought to the magistrate’s court by Goa police crime branch before noon on Sunday.

While the police have started interrogating Tejpal, the big task ahead of them is to gather enough evidence to prove their case in a court of law.