Tehelka scandal Live: Have asked if FIR can be filed, says Goa CM

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has said that he has sought a preliminary enquiry into the matter and would await the findings of the police. “High profile cases need high profile action,” Parrikar said. The Chief Minister said that he has asked the police to see if an FIR can be filed in the case. Parrikar said he had also asked the women’s commission in the state to look into the allegations of sexual assault. 4:45 pm: Tehelka editor says that committee will be formed today, still an internal matter Managing editor Shoma Chadhury said that she was setting up a committee and it would be completed by the evening. “I am being driven by what the aggrieved journalist wants, please let me address her concerns first,” she said. “An apology has been given and the editor has resigned. Are these not actions? What more do you want?” the editor said. Chaudhury has said that the management of the magazine had met all the demands of the aggrieved journalist and if she was upset about it her priority would be to deal with her concerns. She also said that it was still an internal matter and would have remained one until the emails were leaked to the media. “It is not a case. The aggrieved party sent me a mail. She wanted action and it has been taken… It is an internal matter,” Chaudhury said. 3:30 pm: Network of Women in Media protests incident, seeks action An organisation representing women in the media has also protested against the incident and has demanded that the magazine assist the victim in initiating criminal proceedings and action under the sexual harassment act. “At the same time we think it is important for the media to refrain from circulating details that could reveal the survivor’s identity and/or are merely titillating and do not serve any public purpose,” The Network for Women in India said in its statement. 2.57: Goa Police to summon Tarun Tejpal for questioning Sources in the Goa Police have told Times Now that they will summon Tarun Tejpal to Goa for questioning as early as this evening or tomorrow. Earlier today, Goa CM Manohar Parrikar said the government was taking suo moto action in the case and has asked the hotel to hand over CCTV footage of the incident. 2:42 pm: Delhi Union of Journalists condemns incident The Delhi Union of Journalists has also condemned the incident and said that no journalist found guilty of sexual harassment should be let off. 2:30 pm: Shoma Chaudhary seeks more time to respond Under fire managing editor of Tehelka Shoma Chaudhury has requested that the media give her more time to act on the complaint and said she would address all the questions on the matter. “I wont respond to the question at this point. I need more time,” she told reporters outside the Tehelka office in Delhi “I want to address the issues that have been raised.. I understand the need for transparency. Please give me the time to respond to it,” she said. “The way these letters have leaked I have not been able to act in a matter that I would like to,” the editor said. Chaudhury has been under for allegedly playing down the incident and said that despite the seriousness of the incident there was no need to take action hastily. “I am not a fugitive. Tejpal is not a fugitive. The institution is not a fugitive. A grievous incident has taken place,” she said. Chaudhury also said that she was in touch with the victim and was “not mad to say things without being in touch with her”. She did not rule out the possibility that she would hold a press conference later. 2:10 pm: Should Tehelka managing editor face action for ignoring victim 2:05 pm: Essential that Tehelka does the right thing, says Vardrajan Former editor-in-chief of The Hindu Siddharth Vardrajan said that it was important that Tehelka took the appropriate steps to ensure the victim in this case received justice. “You can’t be outraged about what is happening within society unless we have safe working environments for women,” the senior journalist told CNN-IBN. He said it was matter that concerned law, society and it was important that Tehelka did the right thing. 2:00 pm: I&B Minister says they will comment later Minister for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari has refused to comment on the issue. “This is a very sensitive issue. We will look into the matter and then comment,” he said. 1:45 pm: Goa Chief Minister Parrikar says they will take action Speaking to Times Now, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that he has been in touch with the police that has now identified the hotel in which the conference the victim referred to was held. “We will take action,” Parrikar said. 1:40 pm: AIPWA chief says victim wants to file case with police Kavitha Krishnan, who heads the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) said that she was in touch with the victim in this case and she has every intention about taking the matter to the police. The victim wanted a sexual harassment cell set up in the magazine as well and was seeking more action against Tejpal than what has been done so far, Krishanan said. “The apology is not really an apology… The complainant is not asking for penance but proper process,” Krishnan told CNN-IBN. The magazine should form a inquiry committee to look in to the matter, she said. 1:20 pm: BJP draws parallels with snooping scandal and Tehelka scandal The BJP has decided to go after the Congress and Tehelka over the issue of Tarun Tejpal’s decision to recuse himself as editor-in-chief. “Do they have such a committee on board? Has such an incident taken place in the past?” BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said. She pointed that Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhary had been protesting rape laws and crimes against women “Some sort of cover up seems to be underway. If the girl has shown the gumption to come out in public we should stand by her,” she said. “I am on purpose trying to draw a parallel between two women. One women is seeking anonymity and it is being violated,” she said. Lekhi accused media persons of covering acts of criminality and said all groups needed to work together to ensure justice is delivered to all women. She also accused the Congress and its surrogates of double standards. “Here when a woman is undergoing all this no help is coming,” Lekhi said. “A private issue should not be sensationalised and a sensational issue should not be covered up,” she said. She accused the media of running a ‘malicious campaign’ against the woman who was seeking privacy in the snooping scandal in Gujarat and even claimed some memos from the Tehelka office had gone missing. 1:00 pm: Goa cops seek CCTV footage from hotel where conference was held CNN-IBN reports that the Goa police is seeking CCTV footage from the hotel in which the alleged incidents of sexual assault took place. This comes despite the woman not filing a complaint with the police in the matter. AFP As reported earlier, in the event of physical abuse the police can take suo motu cognisance of it and file a complaint based on evidence like CCTV footage. 12:30 pm: Woman reiterates that she is unsatisfied with management’s response Times Now quoted the woman as saying that despite the Managing Editor’s claim that she was satisfied with the action taken so far, she was not. “I am disappointed with the response,” she told the news channel. She also reportedly said that others in the magazine were equally unhappy with the action taken by the publication against its editor-in-chief. 12:00 pm: Outrage against Tehelka’s action against Tejpal Many have already begun to question whether the action taken against Tejpal is inadequate. What has sparked further outrage is a statement by Chaudhary that the magazine won’t be instituting an inquiry into the matter and said it was “an internal problem”. Some like Javed Akhtar, who came to Tejpal’s defence, were also roundly chastised. And almost all on Twitter sought further action against Tejpal, with his name and that of the managing editor’s both trending on the micro-blogging site. Even within the journalistic fraternity, on and off Twitter, most backed stronger action against Tejpal. Some like CNN-IBN‘s National Affairs Editor Bhupendra Chaubey were stinging in their criticism of the action taken against Tejpal so far and questioned why the organisation wasn’t taking further action against him or why a body like the National Commission for Women didn’t take action against him. However, practising Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde said that if the abuse faced by the woman was verbal then it was indeed an internal matter and a committee in Tehelka could decide the action against Tejpal. An internal committee within Tehelka was adequate to decide whether his recusing himself as editor in chief was adequate, Hegde said. “If there was any physical attack, then irrespective of whether the victim complains or not if there is evidence like video recordings, it can be enough for filing of a criminal complaint,” Hegde told CNN-IBN. The woman in her complaint had said that the assault had taken place in an hotel elevator in Goa and according to Hegde, a case could be registered in Goa. Despite the sea of outrage over the incident, Tejpal has maintained a stony silence and apart from Chaudhary’s statement claiming it to be an internal matter, Tehelka has said nothing else. Unfortunately, silence and obfuscation will not help.

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