Tehelka sets up committee to probe sexual assault case

NEW DELHI: Tehelka tonight constituted a "complaints committee" to probe the alleged sexual assault by its Editor Tarun Tejpal on a woman journalist colleague as attack on the magazine mounted over its attempts to treat the case as an internal matter.

Tehelka's Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury said the complaints committee, headed by publisher Urvashi Butalia, will investigate the matter.

"In furtherance to Tehelka's acceptance of Tarun Tejpal's recusal from editorship of Tehelka on November 20, which followed the official unconditional apology he had mailed to the journalist concerned on November 19, Tehelka has now constituted a formal complaints committee, in accordance to Vishaka guidelines, to be presided over by Urvashi Butalia, eminent feminist and publisher, to investigate the matter," Chaudhury said in a statement.

She said other members of the committee will be announced shortly.

"In addition to this, Tehelka will ensure setting up a formal complaints committee, according to section 4 of the Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act, 2013), an institutional mechanism that was sorely missing in Tehelka," Chaudhury said.

There has been crticism against the magazine as it did not have an internal committee to go into cases of sexual assault against women employees as mandated under the Supreme Court judgement in the Visakha case.

Tejpal had in a communication to Chaudhury, accepted his "misconduct" against the woman journalist and offered to recuse himself from the post and the office for six months.

The Goa government has already ordered a probe into the alleged sexual assault by Tejpal on the woman journalist.

The Editors Guild of India and other forums of journalists have described the alleged sexual assault by Tejpal as "extremely serious" and asserted that the full force of the law must be brought in to the investigation and prosecution of the incident.