TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
NEW DELHI: Cunning and strategy was used by the think tank of Tehelka’s founder-editor Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexual assault on his young colleague, to secure details of the FIR (first information report) and statements of the victim and her three colleagues, for his legal defence by filing an anticipatory bail application before the Delhi High Court.
His lawyers wanted all the information on the case to prepare his point-wise defence and as such they withdrew his bail application on Thursday from the High Court, a day before the judge was to pronounce her order. They also wanted to buy time to prepare foolproof case before landing in Goa to frustrate the police attempt to arrest him.
“In any case, police could not have interrogated him without giving a copy of the FIR to him, but had he joined the investigations without opting for the legal recourse, we could have never got the status report of the Goa Police that was filed by it on the orders of the High Court,” said a member of the team of lawyers defending Tejpal.
He added that the Crime branch of Goa Police taking him to Dona Paula CID office Friday evening will not extract anything from him as he has been advised not to speak or admit anything that may create a problem in the bail application filed in Goa’s Sessions Court since anything he says may be used on Saturday when the court resumes hearing on his application.
While the Sessions Court ordered not to arrest Tejpal since the hearing on his bail application is still not completed, he cannot even be detained, the lawyer added. He said his colleagues in Panjim were with Tejpal and they would object if the police try to keep him in its office late in the night as it would amount to illegal detention that will be raised first in the Sessions Court when the hearing is resumes, he said.
