NEW DELHI // The managing editor of Indian investigative magazine Tehelka quit yesterday after coming under fire over her handling of allegations that the publication’s founder sexually assaulted a reporter.
In an email to staff, Shoma Chaudhury denied being part of a “cover-up” to protect Tehelka’s founder and editor Tarun Tejpal who is under investigation over claims he sexually assaulted the woman twice in a hotel in the holiday state of Goa.
However Chaudhury, who announced last week that Tejpal was standing aside for six months over what he has described as “a bad lapse of judgement”, acknowledged that “she could have done many things differently”.
The alleged victim, who has since resigned from the English-language monthly magazine, first made the allegations against Mr Tejpal in a detailed email to Ms Chaudhury.
“As a result of what’s transpired over the past few days my integrity has repeatedly been questioned by people from our fraternity and, in fact, by the public at large,” Ms Chaudhury wrote in her mail.
“I do not want questions raised about my integrity to tarnish the image of Tehelka, which it has done in the past week. Therefore, I resign as Managing Editor with immediate effect,” she added.
Scores of supporters from India’s opposition BJP party, which regards the magazine as biased, held a noisy protest outside Ms Chaudhury’s home and demanded her arrest.
“She did not stand up in support of her woman colleague and for the past one week she has been trying to suppress the complaint and facts in the case,” shouted senior BJP leader Vijay Jolly.
He squirted paint outside her gate and defaced her nameplate, replacing her name with the word “accused” which was painted in black.
Police escorted Ms Chaudhury away as the protesters tried to enter her home.
Ms Chaudhury’s resignation comes three days after the alleged victim also quit the magazine, saying she had come under pressure from Mr Tejpal’s family to drop her allegations.
Mr Tejpal, 50, who was due to be questioned by Goa police yesterday, said he would reach the western Indian state tomorrow, an officer said in state capital Panaji.
Tehelka has garnered a reputation for hard-hitting investigations on corruption as well as sexual violence against women and gender inequality, and was hailed for its reporting of a deadly gang-rape in New Delhi last December.
The Tehelka scandal has dominated the Indian news agenda for the last week, with rivals accusing the magazine of hypocrisy.
*Agence France-Presse
