Former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal has moved the Supreme Court docket, difficult the Bombay Excessive Court docket’s order of conviction and sentence of 10 years of rigorous imprisonment within the 2013 rape case.
This comes days after the Goa Government additionally approached the Supreme Court docket for enhancement of punishment to life imprisonment whereas not difficult the discovering of conviction.
The Bombay Excessive Court docket’s Goa bench, comprising Justices Neela Gokhale and Amit Jamsandekar, had on August 6 overturned Tejpal’s acquittal by the trial court and convicted him within the 2013 case. The courtroom subsequently sentenced him to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
The Excessive Court docket had famous that the incident happened 13 years in the past and that there was no report of any subsequent felony misconduct by Tejpal. It consequently declined the Goa authorities’s request for the utmost punishment of life imprisonment and imposed the minimal sentence prescribed for the rape conviction.
The case arose from allegations that Tejpal sexually assaulted a junior colleague inside an elevator at a luxurious lodge in Goa throughout an occasion organised by Tehelka in November 2013. The Goa Classes Court docket had acquitted him in 2021, following which the State challenged the acquittal earlier than the Bombay Excessive Court docket.
The Excessive Court docket convicted Tejpal underneath provisions of the Indian Penal Code regarding rape, sexual harassment and assault with intent to disrobe. The rape provision underneath which he was convicted carried a minimal punishment of 10 years and permitted a sentence extending to life imprisonment.
