DELHI: The Goa police team probing the alleged sexual assault case against Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal returned Sunday after questioning three employees of the magazine who had been contacted by the victim to corroborate her version as it seized a hard disc and documents.
Contrary to reports, the three-member police team, which had flown into Delhi from Panaji Saturday, left without questioning Tejpal.
The police had questioned Tehelka Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury for around nine hours from 4:45 pm on Sunday to around 2 a.m. at the magazine’s office in posh Greater Kailash-II in South Delhi.
The investigating team took into custody the e-mail exchanges among Chaudhury, the woman journalist and Tejpal, a CPU, besides several documents. Other than that, Chaudhury’s mobile phone, an iPad and her laptop were also screened by the police, according to the sources.
Tejpal is likely to seek transfer of probe to an independent agency, according to sources.
Tejpal is likely to move court to seek the transfer of probe from Goa Police, which is investigating the case at present after lodging an FIR.
In a parallel development, National Commission of Women (NCW) has asked the Mumbai Police to provide security to the victim while stressing that the woman journalist should come forward and put her case firmly.
Earlier in the day, the Goa Crime Branch team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Sammy Tavares recorded statements of the three colleagues of the victim with whom she had interacted soon after the alleged assault happened at a Goa hotel around a fortnight ago. She had also sent them copies of the e-mail, which she had sent to Chaudhury complaining about the alleged sexual assault by Tejpal.
Meanwhile, the victim has publicly pleaded with her editor to halt what she called intimidation and harassment.
In a statement to local media late Saturday, the woman said a member of Tejpal’s family had visited her mother’s house in New Delhi on Friday evening and asked her mother to “protect” the editor.
The relative also “demanded to know who I was seeking legal help from and what I wanted as the result of my complaint of sexual molestation by Mr.Tejpal,” the statement said.
The woman said the visit had placed “tremendous emotional pressure” on her family at an “intensely traumatic time.”
“I fear this may be the beginning of a period of further intimidation and harassment,” said the statement, carried on the front pages of several Indian newspapers on Sunday.
“I call upon all persons connected to Tejpal and his associates to refrain from approaching me or my family members,” the statement said.
Tejpal, 50, is the founding editor of Tehelka, known for its hard-hitting investigations into sexual violence against women and gender inequality, as well as into corruption and other law breaking.
With the media newly sensitized to sexual assault cases after a string of widely publicized gang-rape cases this year, the incident has been front-page news and the magazine has been accused of hypocrisy.
The fatal gang-rape 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.
In an e-mail to staff of the New Delhi-based magazine, Tejpal admitted that “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.”
But Tejpal has denied the assault allegation and offered to cooperate with police.
As part of their preliminary investigation, police in Goa have sent a team to Delhi to question magazine staff and Tejpal.
Goa police return without quizzing Tehelka editor
Goa police return without quizzing Tehelka editor
Two high-speed trains derail in Spain, broadcaster reports seven people killed
- The accident happened near Adamuz, which is near Cordoba
MADRID: Two high-speed trains derailed on Sunday in southern Spain, the rail network operator said, and state-run television channel RTVE said seven people had died, citing police sources.
The accident happened near Adamuz, in Cordoba province. Seven people have been confirmed dead by police, RTVE said, adding that 100 people have been injured, 25 seriously.
Spanish police did not immediately respond to request for comment from Reuters.
“The Iryo 6189 Malaga — (to Madrid) train has derailed from the track at Adamuz, crashing onto the adjacent track. The (Madrid) to Huelva train which was traveling on the adjacent track has also derailed,” said Adif, which runs the rail network, in a social media post.
Adif said the accident happened at 6:40 p.m. (1740 GMT), about ten minutes after the Iryo train left Cordoba heading toward Madrid.
Iryo is a private rail operator, majority-owned by Italian state-controlled railway group Ferrovie dello Stato. The train involved was a Freccia 1000 train which was traveling between Malaga and Madrid, a spokesperson for Ferrovie dello Stato said.
Iryo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Adif has suspended all rail services between Madrid and Andalusia.
Andalusia emergency services said on social media that all rail traffic had been halted and emergency services were on their way, including at least nine ambulances and emergency support vehicles.
CALLS FOR MEDICS
A woman named Carmen posted on X that she had been on board the Iryo to Madrid. “Ten minutes after departing (from Cordoba) the train started to shake a lot, and it derailed from coach 6 behind us. The lights went out.”
Footage posted by another Iryo train passenger, also on X, showed an Iryo staffer in a fluorescent jacket instructing passengers to remain in their seats in the darkened carriages, and those with first aid training to keep watch over fellow passengers.
The staffer told passengers they would be evacuated when it was safe to leave, but at that moment the safest place was on the train. He also urged people to maintain mobile phone batteries to be able to use their torches when they disembarked.
The passenger wrote: “In our carriage we’re well but we don’t know about the other carriages. There’s smoke and they’re calling for a doctor.”
The regional government has activated emergency protocols to mobilize more resources to the accident site. Locals posted on social media that a building would be set up in the village nearest the crash for evacuated passengers to be taken to.
Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for RTVE who was on board the Iryo train, shared images showing the nose of the rear carriage of the train lying on its side, with evacuated passengers sitting on the side of the carriage facing upwards.
Jimenez told TVE by phone from beside the stricken trains that passengers had used emergency hammers to smash the windows and climb out, and they had seen two people taken out of the overturned carriages on stretchers.
“There’s a certain uncertainty about when we’ll get to Madrid, where we’ll spend the night, we’ve had no message from the train company yet,” he said. “It’s very cold but here we are.”
