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00:00 How can anyone forget the November 2013 when almost every channel in the country was continuously covering the same news?
00:13 A friend of Tehilka.com founder Tarun Tejpal was accused of harassment and rape.
00:21 And the whole media was in a frenzy over this.
00:24 If I tell you my story, I too was constantly watching this news on every channel.
00:30 But in reality, this matter was not to be ignored.
00:33 Let's understand what this matter was.
00:36 Many such incidents have happened before.
00:39 Still, what was so special about this incident that only the news of Tarun Tejpal was going on for weeks on every media channel?
00:46 Who is this Tarun Tejpal?
00:48 And how and when was he accused of sexual harassment and rape?
00:52 Let's understand.
00:54 Tarun Tejpal is the publisher and editor of the website and magazine Tehilka.com which was launched in 2000.
01:02 Tehilka.com is the same name which launched the first sting operation for India-South Africa cricket match fixing in 2000.
01:12 After which Tehilka was known for sting operations.
01:16 Next year, Tehilka.com opened Operation West End in 2001.
01:22 And under this, two journalists of Tehilka published a story of taking bribe from the military officials and leaders in a security deal through Sting.
01:31 One of the aims of this sting operation was to bring the deals related to the security of the country to the public.
01:39 This sting operation was during the period of 2001 Atal Bihari Bajpayee and in this, through a hidden camera,
01:46 the former managing editor of Tehilka, Matthew Samuel, had shown the immediate president of BJP, Bangaru Laxman, taking bribe.
01:54 This video is still available on Tehilka's YouTube channel.
01:58 After this sensational sting operation, the four senior ministers of the BJP government had to resign from their seats.
02:06 And due to the timeliness of time, the BJP government was about to fall.
02:10 On April 27, 2002, the special CBI court declared this victim of Tehilka.com guilty of bribery and took him into custody.
02:20 The next day, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
02:24 72-year-old Bangaru Laxman resigned from the position of National Executive of the party after the announcement of the punishment.
02:31 And after this, he was granted bail on a personal charge of Rs. 50,000 due to a long-term breathing disorder.
02:37 The present President Ramnath Kovind was one of the two witnesses presented in court by Bangaru Laxman at that time.
02:45 And he said in court that he has known Bangaru Laxman for the past 20 years.
02:50 He also said in his testimony that Bangaru Laxman is an ordinary and honest person and that is why he has been made the chairman of the Indian People's Party.
03:00 After the release of Tehilka's video, he met Bangaru Laxman.
03:04 And according to him, he did not know whether Bangaru had taken that Rs. 1 lakh or not, but he must have been framed in this sting operation.
03:13 In 2002, Tehilka.com also described the riots in Gujarat in a very good way.
03:19 The misled government had raided all the financers' houses and offices related to Tehilka.
03:25 After which these financiers started breaking their ties with Tehilka.
03:30 At that time, Tejpal was also accused of using girls illegally in these sting operations.
03:37 It was heard that despite the financial condition of Tehilka, its employees worked on a low salary and sometimes they worked without salary.
03:47 In our country, where cricket is considered as a religion, a 1.5 hour footage of fixing was kept in front of people.
03:56 This was the same footage that was recorded through Cricket Manoj Prabhakar.
04:01 In this footage, Prabhakar recorded conversations with the big players and managers of cricket related to match fixing.
04:09 The biggest spoil of this footage fell on Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azruddin and Ajay Jadeja.
04:15 Even Kapil Dev cried during the TV interview.
04:19 After the full investigation, both Jadeja and Ajay were found guilty.
04:24 Where Azhar was banned for life, Ajay Jadeja was banned from cricket for the next 5 years.
04:33 In 2004, Tehilka published its newspaper, which was unsuccessful and in 2007 it took the form of a weekly news magazine.
04:42 After starting the magazine, Tehilka opened it again and the target of this opening was BJP again.
04:50 The topic of this opening was the Naroda Patiya Danga.
04:54 Tehilka once again exposed the many faces of BJP, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
05:00 In these videos, it was shown how the leaders of these organizations have accepted that they had a good role in these riots.
05:10 This sting operation could not get much attention.
05:14 But yes, people started saying about Tarun Tejpal's special nature that Tehilka only targets BJP and its associated organizations.
05:24 After this, for the next 4 years, Tarun Tejpal did not do any explosive sting.
05:30 But in the meantime, he wrote two books, which got a special discussion.
05:34 And in 2009, the Business Week put Tarun Tejpal in the list of the 50 most powerful people in India.
05:41 Tarun Tejpal, who was considered an enemy of BJP, was targeted by the UPA government in 2011, which was already struggling due to the 2G scam.
05:51 Tehilka of Tarun Tejpal revealed that during the UPA 1 program, Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had distributed Telecom Licenses in the years 2001.
06:03 In return, the company that got the license invested 700 crores in Maran's company.
06:09 Tehilka's claim was proved once again.
06:13 When the CBI also admitted in the Supreme Court on July 6, 2011 that yes, this scam had happened.
06:19 In 2011, when the government of UPA 2 was in power and Dayanidhi Maran was on the post of Clothing Minister, while at this time the Telecom Minister was A Raja, who was accused of illegally distributing the Telecom spectrum.
06:33 If you pay attention, then I will tell you that just a few weeks ago, the court has said that even after 7 years of the case, the CIG has not yet testified in the court about 2G scams.
06:45 Which makes it seem that during UPA 2, 2G scam had never happened or not.
06:51 Or was it just a conspiracy to weaken the current government?
06:55 Before Tehilka, Tejpal also worked as an editor of India Today and Indian Express Group.
07:01 And he had also been the managing director of Outlook.
07:05 In 2013, his junior employee accused Karun Tejpal of raping him on November 7, 2013.
07:15 He said that Tejpal sexually harassed him in the lift or elevator of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Panjim.
07:23 This incident is from when Tejpal and that woman were together during the annual publication fest at the Hyatt Hotel.
07:31 Tejpal told the girl to take care of Hollywood star Robert D. Nero and his daughter Drina.
07:38 Nero was the chief guest in that event.
07:41 The girl took them all day to Goa.
07:44 The incident is from when after saying goodnight to Nero, Tejpal hugged the girl in the lift lobby and sexually harassed her when she went inside the lift.
07:54 The girl ran away from there and went to her hotel room when the lift stopped at the ground.
07:59 The matter was brought to light when almost all media houses, apart from these two, exchanged emails with Tehlka's immediate managing editor Somna Chaudhary and published them in front of the public.
08:11 Seeing the delicacy of the matter, Tejpal resigned from the post of editor-in-chief of tehlka.com for the next six months.
08:19 Initially, there was no police involvement in this case.
08:23 But after so much noise in the media, Goa Crime Rate ordered a preliminary investigation of this case on the basis of suo moto.
08:31 During this time, the Goa police filed three charges of sexual harassment and rape against Tejpal.
08:38 The girl said that Tejpal had misbehaved with her twice.
08:42 She was first affected by Tejpal's behavior during the Goa National Fest.
08:47 But she had avoided thinking that at that time these two people were in a state of intoxication.
08:52 When Tejpal suddenly started in the lift with her.
08:55 She pressed some buttons of the lift in such a way that the lift did not stop on any floor, due to which he kept raping her.
09:03 The second time when she misbehaved with the victim, both were not drunk.
09:08 The next day, i.e. on the afternoon of November 8, this girl took Nero, his daughter and Tejpal's wife to the governor's bungalow for lunch.
09:16 Even during lunch, he did not tell Tejpal's wife anything.
09:20 After returning to the hotel, Tejpal told the girl that Nero will meet Amitabh Bachchan in the evening.
09:27 From here, the girl took Nero to the market and then returned to her hotel.
09:33 At the same time, he received a text message from Tejpal and through someone else he asked the girl to come to the hotel.
09:40 Upon reaching there, Tejpal asked the girl to go to Nero's suite together.
09:45 The girl was hesitating, but she had no choice.
09:49 After going to the lift, Tejpal sexually harassed the girl again.
09:54 That same night, the girl told all this to Tejpal's wife and daughter.
09:59 She was with Nero, even after that she was getting messages from Tejpal.
10:04 After Tejpal's second attack, she told everything to the managing editor Shoma Chaudhary.
10:09 After that, some emails were exchanged between the three of them and somehow all those emails reached the media.
10:19 After which the police got involved in this case.
10:22 For everyone, this was a different face of Tejpal.
10:26 According to the statement given to the Goa police, the girl is a good friend of Tejpal's daughter.
10:32 And at the age of her father, she considered Tejpal her teacher.
10:36 Tejpal also harassed her in the lift the next time.
10:39 After which she told all this to her boyfriend and Tejpal's daughter.
10:44 Tejpal's daughter told her that she had seen her father Tejpal in a relationship with another girl.
10:52 But she was only 13 years old.
10:55 Between 7th to 16th November, many SMS were exchanged between the two of them.
11:00 In which there were a lot of real jokes.
11:03 Apart from this, Tejpal said that all this was a joke in the intoxication and you are like my daughter.
11:08 After the incident, he wrote some emails to the managing editor of Tehlka.
11:13 The girl's statement came in front of the police from three sides.
11:16 The first one which he wrote in the emails, the second one which the girl gave in front of the police and the third one which she gave in front of the magistrate.
11:24 According to the police, these three statements were similar to each other, so the girl's words seemed to be true.
11:30 While Tejpal's statements had been changing from the beginning.
11:34 Tejpal's acquaintances also say that the Goa's Manohar Parrikar government is trying to trap him.
11:40 Because a long time ago, this same Tehlka.com had weakened the BJP's current government through Operation West End.
11:47 On 30th November, Tejpal reached Goa from Delhi.
11:51 Where his anti-separatory bail was refused and he was taken into custody.
11:59 During the hearing in the local court, the victim was told that Tejpal, who was his teacher, was his father's age.
12:07 He not only played with the victim's honor, but also took advantage of his position and cheated him.
12:14 On 17th February, the police filed a criminal charge against Tejpal, raping, sexual harassment and taking advantage of his position,
12:22 and sent him to Vasco jail in Goa.
12:30 On 19th May, the Supreme Court gave Tejpal a final bail to take part in his mother's last rites, which was later extended for six weeks.
12:41 After that, on 1st July, the Supreme Court again bailed Tejpal.
12:45 On 28th September, 2017, the Goa court ruled against Tejpal for sexual harassment.
12:54 This court decision has increased the difficulties of Tejpal.
12:58 Tejpal had created a sensation throughout the country with his pen and secret camera.
13:04 He had spread sensationalism in the streets of power by making big promises.
13:08 He had such a reputation that people started trusting him blindly.
13:13 But the years of earning, fame and name were destroyed in just one step.
13:19 It is now almost impossible for Tejpal, who was accused of sexual harassment with a female journalist of his own team, to escape the law.
13:27 The Goa trial court has imposed nine charges on Tejpal, of which five are of rape.
13:34 According to the Indian Express report, the new charges on Tejpal are Section 341 and 342 for punishment for wrongful restraint, Section 372 for misusing the position of rape, and Section 354 for sexual intercourse on the woman who is under him.
13:56 In addition, the court also says that the trial will be conducted on all charges against Tejpal.
14:02 For more information, visit www.indianexpress.com