Tarun Tejpal case: ‘Judge tried the survivor,’ say activists and former women’s commission chairpersons

“It is very unfortunate that a woman judge has delivered such a judgment. In this case, the judge has put the survivor on trial instead of trying the accused,” Vijaya Rahatkar, former chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women said.

Activists and former chairperson of the Maharashtra Commission for Women condemned the judgment that acquitted journalist Tarun Tejpal in case of sexual assault and rape and said “the judge has put the survivor on a trial and not the accused.” On May 21, additional sessions judge Kshama Joshi at the Mapusa District and Sessions Court, Goa acquitted Mr Tejpal in the 2013 case and said, “The prosecutrix’s (female victim) account neither demonstrates any kind of normative behavior on her part – that a prosecutrix of sexual assault on consecutive nights might plausibly show, nor does it demonstrate any such behaviour on the part of the accused.”