Tarun Tejpal Row: Survivor Lashes out at His ‘Liberal’ Supporters

“If Tehelka was so righteous and embattled how did its editor-in-chief amass huge properties,” she asked.

Tarun Tejpal. (Photo Courtesy: Tarun Tejpal)

Following Malavika Sangghvi’s article in Mumbai daily Mid-Day urging for a re-think on the “grave error” committed by former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal, the survivor of the alleged rape spoke up against “liberals” who tolerate rape culture.

In an interview with Times Now journalist Aditya Raj Kaul, she criticised the rampant sexism in many workplaces and those who tolerate it.

There was nothing liberal about the source of <i>Tehelka</i> and THiNK’s funding, or the fact that stories in the newsroom were killed whenever they threatened the editor’s friends. If <i>Tehelka</i> was so righteous and embattled, how did its editor-in-chief amass huge properties in Delhi, Goa, Mumbai and Nainital.

Statement of the rape survivor

In 2014, Tejpal was accused of allegedly raping a junior female colleague during the magazine’s annual confab in Goa. Two years on, he is facing trial in a Goa court and is currently out on bail. Tejpal had admitted to his “misconduct” calling it a “lapse of judgement” in a private email. 

Sangghvi in her column called this entire ordeal a media campaign which gave his “detractors ammunition to demolish him” and asked if there was “really need for such a vociferous dragging through the coals?”

Condemning the idea of a media trial ruining Tejpal’s career and life, she asked, “how does he continue to pay his huge and expensive battery of lawyers?”

What kind of justice should one hope for when wealthy and influential criminals are lobbying with journalists, politicians and industrialists to hold an international conclave under the guise of “liberalism”?

Also Read: Mid-Day Mollycoddles Tarun Tejpal on his “Grave Error” (Read Rape)