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Tarun Tejpal moves high court, seeks trial from December 2

PANAJI: Former Tehelka founder-editor Tarun Tejpal , who is accused of raping a woman, has approached the high court of Bombay at Goa to challenge the Mapusa sessions court order which had set the hearing in the case from October 21.


Tejpal has sought hearing of the case after December 2 as his lawyer is busy with other matters.

Counsel for Tejpal, senior advocate Surendra Desai told TOI about the petition being filed in the high court. It is likely to come up for hearing on Friday.

On October 7, additional sessions court judge Kshama Joshi had turned down requests from both, the prosecution and Tejpal, to commence the trial from November 4 and December 2, respectively.

Tejpal had sought a December trial as his advocate was not available, while the prosecution had sought time till November 4, as it wanted to record statements of the other local witnesses in the case, as the survivor is busy with her professional commitments.

In the petition Tejpal stated that, as per the Supreme Court judgment, the trial court has to prepare a case calendar in view of the proposed order of production of witnesses by the parties, expected time required for examination of witnesses, availability of witnesses at the relevant time and convenience of both the prosecution as well as the defence as far as possible.

The Supreme Court had dismissed Tejpal’s special leave petition seeking discharge from the case and directed the lower court to complete the trial within six months.

In September 2017, the Mapusa court had framed charges against Tejpal for raping a woman in a five-star hotel at Bambolim in November 2013. Tejpal had pleaded not guilty, paving the way for a trial.

The in-camera trial in the case had started on March 15, 2018. The survivor had completed her deposition before additional sessions judge Vijaya Pol at Mapusa on March 16, 2018.

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