Tarun Tejpal convicted of sexual assault by Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court’s Goa bench has convicted Tarun Tejpal, the former editor of Tehelka magazine, for the sexual assault of a former colleague. Tejpal has been sentenced to ten years of incarceration for the incident, which allegedly occurred in a hotel lift in Goa.

The High Court’s decision reverses a previous acquittal by a trial court in Mapusa. The original judgment had been criticized for relying on the “ideal victim” construct, where the court questioned the survivor’s credibility based on her composure and personal history rather than the evidence. The trial court had permitted invasive cross-examinations into the victim’s sexual history and private messages, ultimately dismissing Tejpal’s written apologies as coerced.

In its reversal, the High Court condemned the trial court for its reliance on misogynistic assumptions regarding how a victim should behave. The High Court found the survivor’s evidence to be of “sterling quality” and ruled that Tejpal’s email apologies for a “shameful lapse of judgment” were valid evidence. The ruling is being viewed as a landmark decision for protecting the bodily, decisional, and informational privacy of sexual assault complainants.