Goa police quiz Shoma

Goa police officials on Sunday questioned Tehelka magazine’s managing editor Shoma Chaudhury as part of an investigation into allegations that its editor-in-chief, Tarun Tejpal, sexually assaulted a woman journalist employed at the magazine.

Led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Sammy Tavares and investigating officer Inspector Sunita Sawant, the team questioned Ms. Chaudhury for over three hours, police sources said.

The sources said Tehelka is to make available laptop computers, iPads and hard disks, which investigators believe contain digital evidence connected to the case.

Investigators and the Goa police have also been in touch with the woman journalist, and that her testimony would be recorded in the coming days, police sources told The Hindu.

Mr. Tejpal, who denied any wrongdoing in a statement released on Friday, has not so far been contacted by police, his lawyer said in statement.

In an e-mail to the woman, obtained by investigators, Mr. Tejpal apologised for the “immense distress that’s been caused to you by my lapse of judgment”, but immediately added that “I want you to know it’s been totally devastating for me too”. He claimed to have had “no idea that you were upset, or felt I had been even remotely non-consensual”.