India: News magazine editor faces rape charges
Rape in India carries a sentence of 7-year but only about 25% of cases lead to conviction.
PANAJI (AFP) - Indian police said Friday they had begun investigating the editor of a top investigative news magazine who faces a possible rape charge after allegedly assaulting a woman colleague.
Tehelka magazine, which pioneered undercover sting operations in India, has been embroiled in scandal since Wednesday when it was leaked that editor Tarun Tejpal had agreed to take six months leave for "misconduct".
Emails from a colleague claimed she had been sexually assaulted twice in a hotel in the holiday state of Goa during a conference organised by the magazine last month.
Though the victim has not pressed charges, police in Goa told AFP that they had begun an investigation based on media reports with Tejpal facing possible charges of rape and "outraging the modesty of a woman".
"A special investigation team has been formed which has left for Delhi to interrogate Tejpal," the director general of Goa police Kishen Kumar told AFP, adding that police were examining the hotel s CCTV footage.
In a statement sent to AFP, Tejpal offered to cooperate with police and would present "all the facts of this incident".
"I also urge the committee and the police to obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed," he added.
In an email sent to staff of the New Delhi-based magazine, Tejpal admitted that "a bad lapse of judgement, an awful misreading of the situation, have led to an unfortunate incident that rails against all we believe in and fight for".
With the media newly sensitised to sexual assault cases after a string of widely publicised gang-rape cases this year, the incident has been front-page news amid charges of hypocrisy.
The magazine has reported forcefully on gender inequality in India recently, highlighting police and judicial insensitivity to rape victims as well as the misogynistic attitudes of many Indian men.
The fatal gangrape of a student on a New Delhi bus last December touched off sometimes violent demonstrations and a long period of introspection in India about the treatment of women and rising crime against them.
Managing editor Shoma Chaudhury, who received the complaint and negotiated the temporary leave for Tejpal, said she had been acting in good faith and according to the victim s wishes.
She said that she had not informed the police because the victim had asked for it to be dealt with internally through an investigation and an apology to all staff from Tejpal.
The victim cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Rape in India carries a sentence of a minimum of seven years but only about 25 percent of cases lead to conviction, according to crime statistics.
If a victim does not press charges and collaborate with police in a sexual assault case, a conviction would be extremely difficult to secure, legal experts say.
