Founder Editor of Tehelka , Tarun Tejpal, accused in the journalist sexual assault case, on Tuesday dismissed the charge sheet filed against him by Goa police as “highly spurious” and “proof of political vendetta that has been unleashed against him, under the guise of a sexual molestation investigation.”
Barely a day after the police filed the charge sheet in JMFC court, he accused the Goa police of “playing into the hands of their political masters” by suppressing the most crucial piece of evidence in the case, the CCTV footage of the incident in their 3,000-page charge sheet.
After receiving the copy of charge sheet on Tuesday, in a written statement, which the family released to the media, he recalled that he had on November 22 publicly urged the police to “obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed.”
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Mr. Tejpal said denying the CCTV footage to him was “violative of due process, to not make all collected evidence available to the accused at the time of filing the charge sheet.”
He accused the Goa police of clearly acting under the orders of their political bosses by withholding the crucial footage of the relevant days, 7th and 8th of November.
“This entire case hinges on the 130 and 45 seconds [as per the charge sheet] of contested time which can be brought to light via the CCTV footage,” he said and was sure that the case would collapse the moment the footage is revealed and compared with the ‘testimony’ of the alleged victim, on the basis of which the Goa police filed it’s FIR.
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Earlier, on Tuesday, the Bombay High Court at Goa adjourned the hearing of his bail application to March 4.
He has challenged the earlier order of the District and Sessions Court rejecting him bail.