Former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal surrendered before an Additional Sessions Court in Mapusa, Goa, on September 14, serve his 10-year rigorous imprisonment sentence in a 2013 sexual assault case. Tejpal was subsequently sent to the Central Jail at Colvale in North Goa. The surrender followed a Supreme Court order on August 25 directing him to surrender within three weeks.
The Court had rejected his plea seeking exemption from surrendering while agreeing to hear his appeal against the conviction and sentence on September 22, subject to the filing of his surrender certificate. The Bombay High Court, on August 6, had overturned Tejpal’s acquittal by the trial court and convicted him of sexually assaulting a junior colleague inside a hotel elevator in Goa in November 2013. It sentenced him to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of over Rs 10 lakh, to be paid to the survivor.