FILE PHOTO: Tarun Tejpal, the 50-year-old founder and editor-in-chief of India’s main investigative journal Tehelka, speaks with the media upon his arrival on the airport on his solution to Goa, in New Delhi November 29, 2013. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

By Kannaki Deka and Tanvi Mehta

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -A courtroom in India on Friday acquitted a former prime information journal editor of fees he raped a colleague in an eight-year-old case that raised questions concerning the security of girls within the office.

The prosecution mentioned it deliberate to enchantment the decision.

Tarun Tejpal, 58, was editor of Tehelka journal, which made a reputation for itself by exposing corruption and abuse of energy in excessive locations. The journal had additionally taken a stand in pushing for society to confront sexual violence.

Police mentioned Tejpal assaulted a feminine employees member in a lodge elevator throughout a convention in Goa state in 2013.

Special Public Prosecutor Francisco Tavora informed Reuters in a textual content message {that a} Goa trial courtroom had acquitted Tejpal and the prosecution deliberate to enchantment.

“The state is aggrieved by the order,” Tavora mentioned.

Details of why the courtroom had thrown out the case can be accessible after a written judgement was launched, Tavora’s workplace mentioned.

The high-profile case was offered as a battle for justice for a younger worker towards a celeb editor in a rustic the place few converse out about abuse of energy and sexual harassment within the office.

On Friday, Tejpal mentioned he was relieved choose Kshama Joshi had thrown out the case primarily based on false accusations of sexual assault. His household had gone by means of a troublesome time, he mentioned.

“The past seven-and-half years have been traumatic for my family as we have dealt with the catastrophic fallout of these false allegations on every aspect of our personal, professional and public lives,” he mentioned in a press release his daughter learn exterior the courtroom.

There was no response from the complainant, who can’t be recognized underneath Indian regulation to guard her privateness.

The chief minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant, mentioned his authorities would enchantment the decision within the High Court.

“We will not tolerate any injustice to women in Goa. It is extremely sad.”

India’s legal guidelines on rape have been tightened and quick monitor courts have been arrange because the gang-rape of a younger lady in a Delhi bus and her homicide in 2012 shocked the nation.

But the prison justice system stays notoriously gradual and instances are nonetheless taking a median of six years to succeed in a ultimate ruling, in keeping with governance monitoring group Daksh. Many instances fall by the wayside.

“The judicial system lets down another woman. No wonder women do not want to file a complaint with the police,” Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, a leftist group preventing for ladies’s rights, mentioned on Twitter.

“At the end of it all, the courageous woman did not get even a tiny taste of justice.”

Activists say ladies in Indian workplaces hesitate to talk up about sexual harassment by colleagues, managers or employers, afraid of dropping their jobs or going through public opprobrium.

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Kannaki Deka; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Robert Birsel)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions –
https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html