Tarun Tejpal surrenders at Mapusa court, sent to Colvale jail

Former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal surrendered on Monday before the Additional Sessions Court at Mapusa in North Goa and was taken to Central Jail at Colvale to begin a 10-year rigorous imprisonment sentence. The Supreme Court had ordered him on 25 August to surrender within the time it set after the Bombay High Court at Goa convicted him on 6 August.

Outside the court he told reporters, in remarks carried by PTI and The Indian Express, that his case was before the Supreme Court and that he was sure justice would come. India Today quoted him saying he would approach the court again and was confident of relief. A senior police officer confirmed he had been moved to Colvale.

The High Court judgment he must serve

A division bench of Justices Neela Gokhale and Amit Jamsandekar convicted Tejpal under Section 376(2)(f) of the Indian Penal Code, rape by a person in a position of trust or authority, and under Sections 354A and 354B, sexual harassment and assault with intent to disrobe. The bench set aside a 2021 trial-court acquittal and sentenced him to 10 years.

The complainant, a junior colleague at Tehelka, accused him of sexually assaulting her in a hotel elevator in Goa on 7 and 8 November 2013 during a magazine event. He was first arrested on 30 November 2013. The sessions court that acquitted him in May 2021 wrote that the complainant did not show what it called normative behaviour a victim might plausibly show. The Goa government appealed. The High Court reversed that acquittal.

The High Court had given him time to surrender. He then asked the Supreme Court for exemption so that his appeal could be heard first. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued the age of the case and the period already spent in custody. A bench of Justice Alok Aradhe dismissed the plea. The court said the criminal appeal would be listed on 22 September if a surrender certificate reached the registry by 21 September.

What happens this week

The surrender certificate is now the procedural key. Without it the 22 September date does not open. With it, the Supreme Court will have the High Court record and the sentence under challenge. The Goa government has separately asked the Supreme Court to raise the sentence to life imprisonment. That plea sits on the same file.

Colvale Central Jail is the prison that will hold him unless a later order changes custody. He is 62. The conviction is for offences that carry a mandatory minimum in the aggravated-rape clause used by the High Court. Bail pending appeal is not automatic after a High Court conviction on these sections.

The 2013 case has run through a trial acquittal, a state appeal, a High Court conviction and a Supreme Court listing. Monday's act does not decide guilt on the last court. It satisfies the condition the Supreme Court set before it will hear the appeal. The next date that matters on the public record is 21 September for the certificate and 22 September for the hearing, if the paper is filed on time.

Tejpal founded and edited Tehelka, a magazine that built its name on sting investigations in the early 2000s. The 2013 complaint ended that public role. The legal fight that followed has lasted 13 years from the dates in the FIR. Monday put him inside a Goa prison while that fight continues in Delhi.