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http://alaiwah.wo rdpress.co m/2013/11/22/tehelkas-edito r-tarun-tejpal-ney-face-kala-kiya/

Tehelkas Editor Tarun Tejpal Ney Face Kala Kiya

Indias senior investigative journalist Tarun Tejpal, who exposed many corruption cases including BJPs f ormer party president Bangaru Laxman accepting bribe in a def ence deal, is now f acing sexual assault case. Tehelkas Bombay senior correspondent has accused Tarun Tejpal of sexually assaulting during Tehelkas T hink seminar in Goa. T his young journalist went to school at New Delhis Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and then studied philosophy at St. Stephens College, University of Delhi. She previously worked f or WorldSpace radios web journal, T he Voice. For a brief period, she worked with Lalit Kala Akademi as chief coordinator f or an international poetry f estival bef ore joining Tehelka. Meanwhile, Tejpal has confessed to the crime and tendred written apology to his woman colleague. Tejpal also took six-month leave as atonement for his act. However, Tarun Tejpal might be arrested by the Goa police af ter Chief Minister Manohar Parikkar ordered probe into the matter. Email of the victim to Tehelkas Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury Dear Shoma, It is extremely painf ul f or me to write this email to you I have struggled with f inding an easier way to say it, but there isnt one. T he editor in chief of Tehelka, Tarun Tejpal, sexually assaulted me at T hink on two occasions last week. From the very f irst moment, I wanted to call you, or f ind you and tell you what he had done to me but given how absorbed you were at T hink; preparing f or and conducting sessions, and the f act that it was impossible f or the two of us to get even a minute alone together, I could not. To add to this, I had to process the f act that it was Tarun who molested me my father s ex colleague and friend, T iyas dad, and someone I had so deeply respected and admired for so many years. Both times, I returned to my room in a completely distraught condition, trembling and crying. I went straight to Shougat and Ishans room, where I called G Vishnu and told them what had been done to me. (All three of them are copied on this email. You can contact them f or any clarif ications you see necessary). T he second time he molested me, I even told T iya what happened . When he heard Id told Tiya (she conf ronted him), he lashed out at me, and I became truly terrif ied of what he would do. I avoided him in all situations except in rooms f ull of people, until I checked out of T hink on Sunday. As of Saturday evening, he sent me text messages insinuating that I misconstrued a drunken banter. T hat is not what happened.

Banter does not involve forcing yourself on someone, trying to disrobe them, and penetrate them with your fingers despite them pleading for you to stop. As you read through the details of what happened in the attachment to this mail, I hope you will also understand how traumatic and terrif ying it has been f or me to report this to you and yet how critical it is that Tehelka constitute an anti sexual harassment cell as per the Vishakha guidelines immediately, to investigate this matter. At the very least, I will need a written apology from Mr Tejpal and an acknowledgement of the same to be circulated through the organization. It cannot be considered acceptable for him to treat a female employee in this way. On the night of 7th November 2013, the opening night of Tehelkas T hink f estival, I had discharged my duties f or the day as the chaperone f or Mr Robert De Niro. As it was Mr De Niro and his daughters f irst night in Goa and at the f estival, my editor in chief Mr Tarun Tejpal accompanied Mr De Niro, Drena De Niro (his daughter) and I to Mr De Niros suite to wish him goodnight. (As his chaperone, my work was to be available all day to Mr De Niro and Drena, take them sightseeing, make sure they were well looked af ter in Goa and at the Hyatt until they retired to their suite at night. ) As we lef t the suite, Mr Tejpal and I were in conversation I have known him since I was a child, he had worked closely with my father who was also a journalist, and after my father s accident Mr Tejpal had always been a paternal figure to me. He was responsible for offering me my first job, and was always just a phone call away whenever I needed his advice on a story or life. His daughter, T iya Tejpal and I are very close friends as well. As we made our way out of the elevator of Block 7 at the Grand Hyatt, Mr Tejpal held my arm and pulled me back into the lif t. He said Lets go wake up Bob (Mr De Niro) and I asked him why he wanted to do that. I then realized that Mr Tejpal was simply pressing buttons on the lifts panel to make the elevator stay in circuit, preventing it f rom stopping anywhere, and f or the doors to open. At this point, he began to kiss me from the first moment of his doing so, I asked him to stop, citing several reasons, including my friendship to T iya, my closeness to his family, the fact that he had known me since I was a child, the fact that I worked for Tehelka and for Shoma Chaudhury who is my managing editor and mentor. It was like talking to a deaf person. Mr Tejpal lifted my dress up, went down on his knees and pulled my underwear down. He attempted to perform oral sex on me as I continued to struggle and hysterically asked him to stop. At that moment he began to try and penetrate me with his fingers, I became scared and pushed him hard and asked him to stop the lif t. He would not listen. T he lif t stopped on the ground f loor as Mr Tejpals hands were on me and could not press the button f or yet another f loor to keep it in circuit. As soon as the doors opened, I picked up my underwear and began walking out of the elevator rapidly he was still f ollowing me, asking me what the matter was. I said Its all wrong. I work f or you and Shoma. He said first Its alright to be in love with more than one person, and then he said, Well, this is the easiest way for you to keep your job. I was walking still f aster, blinking back tears. By this time, we had made our way f rom Block 7 to the main lawns of the Grand Hyatt, where I walked into the grassy dinner area f ull of people and Mr Tejpal walked of f towards the perf ormance area. Right as soon as he was out of sight, I took a taxi back to my hotel the International Centre f or Goa, where the Tehelka staf f was staying, and went to the room where the Literary Editor Shougat Dasgupta and the Photo Editor Ishan Tankha were staying. I also called another friend and colleague investigative reporter G Vishnu to the room and told them what had occurred.

While the f our of us were talking in the balcony, Mr Tejpal sent me a text message f rom his personal phone number at 1.17 am, which said T he fingertips. T his was the extent he had managed to penetrate me bef ore I pushed him and ran out of the lif t. I told the people with me on the balcony about this. Some of us considered resigning as soon as T hink was over. I called my boyf riend Aman Sethi in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, f rom Ishan Tankhas iPhone and told him what had happened. I was conf used, hurt and really, really scared. At that point I did not want to lose my job. And so the next morning, I went about my work determined not to give Mr Tejpal or Tehelka a reason to fire me, as I was sure they would do once this story got out . At a f ew points of the day, I discussed the events of the previous night with Shougat Dasgupta, G Vishnu and Ishan Tankha, who were concerned about me af ter the state they had seen me in the previous night. In the af ternoon, I accompanied Mr De Niro, his daughter, Sir VS Naipaul, Lady Naipaul and Mr Tejpals wif e to the Governors bungalow f or lunch. Given the company we were in, I did not make any mention of what had occurred to Ms Geetan Batra, Mr Tejpals wife. Once I had escorted Mr De Niro back to his room post lunch, he expressed a desire to attend one of the sessions at the Main Hall. I brought him down to the Green Room, where Mr Tejpal f ound us, and asked me to bring Mr De Niro back down f or Mr Amitabh Bachchans session as he wanted the two to meet. I took Mr De Niro and his daughter shopping to Panjim, and brought them back in time f or Mr Bachchans session as instructed. Once the session was done, Mr Tejpal, Mr De Niro, Mr Bachchan and a f ew other members of the f ilm industry, lawyers, politicians etc were supposed to meet at the Block 7 Grand Club f or drinks. I escorted Mr De Niro and Drena to this bar, told them I would return to my hotel, change, and be right back. While I was getting dressed at my hotel, Mr Tejpal called me f rom T hakurJis phone (T hakurji is the caretaker and manager of Tehelkas Bombay of f ice premises) and asked me where I was. I inf ormed him I was just about to leave f or the Grand Hyatt. In the taxi I noticed he had already sent me two text messages on my phone which said Where r u? at 8:29and then ?? at 8:42. f rom his personal number. I replied with the f ollowing messages: On my way to the lounge 8.42 pm, Had to sort out a lost package f or Drena and get a bit presentable. See you in 10 at 8.44 pm and Call tee she needs you at 8.47 pm as Tiya had messaged me asking to help her f ind Tarun. At this point I was trying to be as normal and prof essional as possible and somehow get through my duties. Five minutes later, as I was walking into the Grand Club at Block 7, Mr Tejpal was coming out of the lounge. He pointed at me asking me to stop. I was already worried that I was late and that Mr De Niro had asked f or me. Mr Tejpal came to me and said Come up with me, we have to get something f rom Bobs room. I was f rightened that this would lead to a repeat of the previous night and so I said, What does he need? Ill go get it. I was scared of getting into the lif t with him again, and more terrif ied that he was going to try and take me into a room this time. By this time he was holding me by the wrist and had taken me into the lif t (which is barely a f ew steps away f rom the lobby of block 7 where he had asked me to wait). When the doors closed, he started to try and kiss me again. I said Tarun, please, no, just stop, he pulled away, smiled, patted my cheek and said Why? Ok. Ill stop. I said again T his just isnt right. T iya is my best friend. I had lunch with Geetan today. He smiled again and just f or a moment I thought I had appealed to his better sense. I turned away f rom him, desperately waiting f or the door to open (there are only three f loors in Block 7 (G, 1 and 2), we were between f loors). Within seconds of my turning around, he started to lift up my dress. He lifted it all the way up and said Youre unbelievable.

T he door opened on the second f loor, on Mr De Niros f loor and he said again T he universe is telling us something to which I said Im taking the stairs and started to walk out. He pulled me back in, sensing that I was on the verge of hysteria by this point, he was totally comf ortable physically manhandling me, but sensing my sheer panic, he did not touch me until the lif t reached the ground f loor. Right as the doors were about to open, he patted my behind once more. I walked out of the lif t, went to the Grand Club and immediately inf ormed Ishan Tankha that Mr Tejpal had tried to molest me again. Ishan said Again? What the f uck is wrong with him? He was completely disgusted and said once more that we should just resign immediately. As I was to accompany Mr De Niro to the dining area, I somehow composed myself . Mr De Niro was mobbed by f ans and I had to take him away f rom the main garden to the Capiz Bar. I was sitting at the Capiz Bar with Mr De Niro and his daughter when TiyaTejpal came there to join us. T his was the f irst time the two of us had really met since the incident of the previous night. Since I had moved to Bombay about a year and a half ago, T iya had grown to become one of my closest friends. She lives across the road f rom my house in Bombay and barely a day had passed when the two of us did not meet or talk to each other constantly. She was sitting beside me, and Mr De Niro was absorbed in conversation with his daughter. I could not keep something of this magnitude f rom her. I told her she would hate me for what I was telling her but that Mr Tejpal had tried to molest me on these two separate occasions. I said He tried to shove his tongue down my throat and then took my panties off, when T iya replied saying I saw him do this to a woman when I was thirteen, so it doesnt surprise me anymore, but she was clearly disgusted. Tiya lef t the Capiz Bar right af ter this. In half an hour, Mr De Niro and Drena asked to be dropped back to their room. T hey were extremely upset at the days events because Mr De Niro had all but been assaulted by f ans at the dinner table, and they asked me to convey this to Mr Tejpal. When I came down f rom Block 7, I f ound Mr Tejpal sitting at a table with several people and called him away f rom the table, but still in f ull view of everyone, so I could relay Mr De Niros message privately. I said Bob is really upset about tonight, he got mobbed really badly.. to which Mr Tejpal replied I dont give a fuck about Bob. How could you tell T iya what happened? I said Tarun, I told you T iya and I are close and what you did wasnt okay, I had to tell her, to which he said Shes my daughter. Do you even understand what the word means? Just get away from me, Im so fucking pissed off with you right now. I lef t f rom the spot crying, f ound Tiya outside her room in the main perf ormance area and asked her what she had said to her f ather. She said T here was no other way. As soon as you told me I wished you hadnt, but you cant tell me what to say to him I told him to keep it in his pants. I said Im probably going to lose my job over this, she agreed, but also said Itll be a bad phase but itll pass. On this night as well, I lef t the Grand Hyatt and went to my hotel, f ound Shougat Dasgupta, Ishan Tankha and G Vishnu and told them what had happened. I also called my boyfriend and told him that Mr Tejpal was aware of the fact that I wasnt staying quiet, and that he was extremely angry that I had told his daughter. T he next morning, I called my mother and told her everything that had happened. Everyone was most worried f or my saf ety and advised me to leave T hink as soon as possible however since my days work involved me staying away f rom the Grand Hyatt and staying at a completely dif f erent part of Goa f or the day with Mr De Niro and his daughter, I f elt temporarily saf e. At this time MrTejpal sent me the f ollowing texts f rom his personal number. 1. I hope you told Tiya that it was just drunken banter, and nothing else

To which I replied I told her we were both drunk because it was true that everyone had had a few drinks on the first night. But not the second, when he assaulted me minutes after I had reached the Grand Hyatt. However, this was the f irst time Mr Tejpal had said anything to me af ter lashing out at me the previous night, and I was still very af raid of him. He then sent me a second message: 2. And just banter, nothing else to which I did not reply, because there was no way what he had done to me could have been described as banter. Sensing that I had clammed up at his attempt to sugar-coat what really happened, he sent me a third message: 3. Why?? Whats happened?? I did not reply to this message. Within minutes, he sent me a f ourth message, one that convinced me he saw absolutely nothing wrong with what he had done, and was in f act now trying to shame me f or talking to Tiya: 4. I cant believe u went and mentioned even the smallest thing to her. What an absence of any understanding of a parent child relationship. Af ter this message, I made sure to stay away f rom Mr Tejpal except when we were in extremely public situations only such as the Speakers Green Room at the Hyatt, or the lobby of the hotel. T hat evening as well, I steered completely clear of him. He made no mention of anything that had occurred the next day, and the only thought on my mind was to get Mr De Niro on his plane and leave T hink. I had to speak to MrTejpal several times on Sunday the 9th of November to coordinate Mr De Niros travel plans, but in these calls he made no mention of anything that had occurred. Once I dropped Mr De Niro to the Goa Airport at 4.30 pm, I had no f urther contact with Mr Tejpal. However, on 16.11.2013, Mr Tejpal messaged me a number of times 1.Have you spoken to Tee? Is she Ok? To which I replied: Why would she be ok about the f act that you sexually assaulted her best f riend, that is me? 2. Whats with saying this awf ul stuf f ??

To which I replied: Do not send me any messages. You are lying and you know that. 3. Oh is that so? I cherished you like one of my best kids always, all these years; and because of one drunken banter you so easily say these awf ul things. To which I replied: It was twice Tarun, not once and it was no banter. You did the most horrible things to me and I certainly was not drunk. I asked you to stop repeatedly. 4. Oh so thats what you told Tee. No wonder shes so madly upset. Its ok. Am not going to contest anything with her. Will let time and my love heal what it can. 5. Dont think Ive been more saddened in the longest time

I have no doubt that Mr Tejpal was trying to establish his innocence in a devious manner. If he needed to get in touch with his daughter, he could have done so anytime he desired, through his wif e or daughter or nephew or anyone f rom his f amily without messaging me about her, or f alsely claiming that all that happened was a drunken banter. T his was no banter, it was most clearly sexual assault.

As a reporter f or Tehelka who writes on violence against women, I suddenly f ind myself in the horrif ic situation of discovering what it is like to be on the receiving end of this violence f rom a powerf ul man I once deeply admired and respected. I truly hope that the idea of Tehelka is still intact and that you will conduct an inquiry into this matter at the earliest. Recuse On Nov 20, Tarun Tejpal in a bizarre move which goes to show his lack of appreciation about the seriousness of the of f ense in an email to the magazines managing editor Shoma Chaudhury whom some say he is also having an affair with , wrote: I have already unconditionally apologized for my misconduct to the concerned journalist , but I f eel impelled to atone f urther. Tehelka has been born and built, day on day, with my blood, toil, tears and sweat, and that of many others, against near-insurmountable odds, he added. In the email, he f urther wrote: T he last f ew days have been most testing, and I squarely take the blame f or this. A bad lapse of judgment, an awful misreading of the situation, have led to an unfortunate incident that rails against all we believe in and fight for. I have already unconditionally apologized f or my misconduct to the concerned journalist, but I f eel impelled to atone f urther. I f eel atonement cannot be just words. I must do the penance that lacerates me. I am therefore offering to recuse myself from the editorship of Tehelka, and from the Tehelka office, for the next six months. Goa Government led by BJP in Action T he Goa government, led ironically by staunch Tejpal enemy BJP, ordered an inquiry into allegations of sexual assault. Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar said that if we f ind any substance against Tejpal, a suo moto case can be registered against him since the incident happened in Goa. Only af ter police report, I would be able to speak more on the issue. Goas deputy inspector general of police O.P. Mishra said police had asked f or complete closed-circuit television f ootage of the days during which the two incidents of assault were alleged to have taken place. Only af ter we get the f ootage of the tape we will be able to comment f urther, Mishra said. Ever since news came in that the Goa Police had registered a rape case against Tarun Tejpal, there was a change of stance, instead of this being touted as an internal matter or counter questions about whether or not one was an aggrieved party, we now suddenly started hearing insinuations about there being dif f erent versions of what had actually happened, and whether what had earlier been dismissed as an untoward incident was, in the words of Tehelka managing editior, consensual or non-consensual. T he f ollowing text f rom Tarun Tejpal, purportedly sent to his f riends, also did the rounds today:

All my actions so far were out of an attempt to preserve the girls dignity and on Shomas adamantine feminist-principle insistence that I keep correct form by apologising. The truth is it was a fleeting, totally consensual encounter of less than a minute in a lift (of a two-storey building!) Now that a committee has been announced the truth will come out. As will the cctv footage. My life and work have been trashed on a total lie.

Meanwhile, Goa police has registered an FIR against Tejpal which reads as f ollows:

prima facie it appears that a cognisable offence has been committed by Shri Tarun Tejpal, Editor-in-Chief of Tehelka.com during the Think Fest held at Hotel Grand Hyatt, Hambolim, Goa, where the said accused allegedly committed the offence of sexual harassment and rape on a female journalist of Tehelka named [name withheld]. Hence, I hereby lodge my complaint on behalf of the state against Tarun Tejpal, Editor-in-Chief of Tehelka.com u/s 354-A, 376, 376 (2) IPC [outraging the modesty of a woman, rape, rape of a woman in the custody of the perpetrator].

Tehelka Investigation Nov 20 evening, Shoma Chaudhury said in a message posted on Tehelkas website said that the magazine has now constituted a f ormal complaints committee, in accordance to Vishaka guidelines, to be presided over by Urvashi Butalia, eminent f eminist and publisher, to investigate the matter. T he Vishaka guidelines ref er to a set of requirements f or employers dealing with complaints of sexual assaults, laid down by the Supreme Court in a 1997 judgment. Chaudhary also said Tehelka will ensure the setting up of a f ormal complaints committee, according to section 4 of the Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act, 2013 ), an institutional mechanism that was sorely missing in Tehelka. People f amiliar with the woman journalist had said she was weighing her options and would probably be willing to cooperate with the inquiry that has been initiated by the Goa government. Her main aim is to make sure there is an institutional apparatus within Tehelka, such as a sexual harassment committee that would look into such matters, Legal Reactions Kavita Krishnan, secretary, All India Progressive Womens Association said that the institutional response by Tehelka had been shabby. With regard to the legal options available to the victim, Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy said, She can f ile a criminal case, a suit in court asking f or f inancial damages, in addition to a writ petition through which the government can instruct Tehelka to set up a sexual harassment committee. She said the absence of a sexual harassment committee in Tehelka was surprising. Nundy said there are larger issues that need to be addressed as well. T he only manner through which this can be weeded out is (through) the law wielding a stick and an internal conviction that would sensitize and habituate a sense of control among relevant actors in the workplace and beyond, she added.

A clutch of human resources (HR) experts believe that a third-party investigation is the best practice f or organizations to f ollow, especially if members of top management are involved in sexual harassment cases. T hey should have had an anti-sexual harassment committee in place. For a path-breaking organization like Tehelka, which has strongly upheld several causes, you need to be scrupulous in every dimension, including the internal ones. It is unf ortunate that they do not have a mechanism or an established ecosystem in place to address such issues f or the employee stakeholder, said Hema Ravichandar, strategic HR adviser and f ormer HR head at Inf osys Ltd. Given what has happened so f ar, there is no conf idence that this matter can be handled impartially, internally, she added. Siddharth Varadarajan, f ormer Editor of T he Hindu newspaper, believes media organizations need to create a conducive environment f or f emale workers and to make sure they critically examined such incidents. How can you speak truth to power if you are unwilling to critically examine your own industry? he asked. People are f ed up with the media holding their own members to other standards. Meanwhile, PT I reported that the revelations about the alleged sexual assaults have cost Tejpal membership of the Prasar Bharti board. Tejpal was selected as a member of the board by a committee headed by vice-president Hamid Ansari, people f amiliar with the situation said. Soon af ter the allegations came to light last night, Ansari asked the inf ormation and broadcasting ministry to cancel Tejpals membership, these people added. Tehelkas Defense Tehelka managing editor Shoma Chaudhury mentioned on NDT V that Tejpal and she were being judged solely on the wrong tonality of the earlier leaked emails, and that the unconditional apology that Tarun Tejpal had given the complainant could perhaps help place Tehelkas behaviour in context. Tejpal himself put out a statement:

There have been serious allegations cast on me in this last week, and unfortunately as sometimes happens in life, the complete truth and the need to do the honorable thing can come into conflict. In this case this anguish was accentuated by the fact that very many intimate people, professional and personal, were involved. For four days, as demanded by Shoma Chaudhury, the managing editor, and the recipient of the complaint, I have tried to do what was honorably demanded of me. On Nov 19, I issued an apology for the alleged misconduct, as desired by the journalist through Shoma Chaudhury. On Nov 20, I stepped down from the editorship of Tehelka and removed myself from the office premises. On Nov 21, I learnt of the formation of the complaints committee. I offer my fullest cooperation to the police and all other authorities, and look to presenting all the facts of this incident to it. 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.

We have been able to get a copy of the unconditional apology that Tarun Tejpal wrote to the young journalist on November 19, which, inter alia, clearly states:

This is the hardest thing I will ever do in my life. You are a young woman I have been very proud of, as a colleagues daughter, and then as a colleague in my own office. I have watched you grow and mature professionally into a journalist of great integrity and promise.

It wrenches me beyond describing, therefore, to accept that I have violated that long-standing relationship of trust and respect between us and I apologise unconditionally for the shameful lapse of judgement that led me to attempt a sexual liaison with you on two occasions on 7 November and 8 November 2013, despite your clear reluctance that you did not want such attention from me. I understand the extreme distress you have been feeling and if regret could turn time back, the force of mine would surely place us all back in a space and time before this terrible lapse. I know you feel I used my position as Editor, Tehelka to force my attention on you, and I acknowledge that I did at one point say to your contention that I was your boss, That makes it simpler, but I do want to put on record that the moment those words escaped my lips, I retracted them saying I withdraw that straight away no relationship of mine has anything at all, ever, to do with that. I want to reiterate that again today: despite my colossal lapse, working and succeeding in Tehelka will never be predicated on anyone acquiescing to anything untoward. It never has and never will. Having said that though, I acknowledge that there is an inherent disbalance of power in my position as editor-in-chief and you as an employee of Tehelka and there is absolutely no ground or circumstance in which I should have violated the propriety and trust embedded in that relationship. Tehelka has a proud legacy and body of work, to which you yourself and legions of other journalists have contributed. As the founder and editor-in-chief, I have helmed and nurtured this proud institution, and I cannot imagine what insanity drove me to compromise these long, proud years of trust and public work. There are many, many reasons, therefore, why I am smothered with regret. But I want you to know that foremost among them is the fact that I have hurt you and broken your trust in me, and that of many others around me. I have often spoken for the absolute rights and freedoms of women, and it shames me beyond words, to find myself located in this awful context. I would say it was a moment of insanity, except that would mean evading responsibility for it, and that I will not do. I hold myself, first and last, accountable. I know Shoma has urged you not to leave Tehelka, and even as I acknowledge that I have lost the right to say this to you, I would urge you not to leave either. At the very least, I would like to assure you that the space to do your work proudly and freely, without worrying about fear or favour, will always be available to you here. For long years, you have known a different man, a man and editor you trusted and were proud to know. In extreme contrition, I would like you to know that but for this unconscionable lapse, that man still exists and holds you in highest regard. If an apology can heal, please consider this an unconditional one. I apologise unconditionally for the shameful lapse of judgement that led me to attempt a sexual liaison with you on two occasions on 7 November and 8 November 2013, despite your clear reluctance that you did not want such attention from me.

T hat even this unconditional apology itself was insincere becomes clear f rom the response to this email by the young journalist who writes categorically: In response to this email, the complainant responded on November 21, in an email to Shoma Chaudhury that Tejpals account of what happened on Nov 7 & 8 dif f ered f rom hers on the f ollowing counts:

The use of the words sexual liaison is a clear misrepresentation of facts, and an attempt to obfuscate the truth that he sexually molested me, on two separate occasions and that he violated my bodily integrity and trust. He did not even once, utter the words I withdraw that straight away no relationship of mine has anything at all, ever, to do with that. I have written this in my response to his private email to me as well, which is ccd to you and my colleagues who have known about him sexually molesting me from Nov 7.

In conversations with my colleagues you have said that you do not contest the facts of my testimony, which is why you do not see it necessary to constitute an anti sexual harassment cell as per the Vishakha guidelines in this case. However, given that his apology presents an entirely different version from my testimony, i.e. attempts to establish that a sexual liaison took place as opposed to him sexually molesting me, I insist once again in the spirit of justice, to constitute an anti sexual harassment cell in accordance with the Vishakha guidelines to investigate this matter.

I demand that you publicly withdraw your statement that I or other Tehelka journalists are satisfied, since my colleagues do not know the full extent of what was done to me, and I am deeply hurt that as my mentor, you could suggest in any way that this blatant misrepresentation of facts would be satisfactory to me.

Tejpal told the Indian Express that:

It is a totally mendacious account of what happened, in its details, in its tonalities, in its very suggestion of non-consensus. In cold light of day, much of it will sound unsavoury, but now the inquiry will reveal it all

Tejpal also said that the allegation by the journalist that he told her the best way to keep her job was by not resisting his advances, was a half-truth. T his is one of the half-truths shes voiced. Nothing of this, as she states, was said or intended, he said. My lawyers know I am being f ramed, and are also aware of the political f orces driving much of it now, he added.