Tejpal denied any interim relief; Delhi High Court to pass order on anticipatory bail application on November 29; KTS Tulsi, Mukul Rohatgi argue [Updated]

After a hearing that lasted close to ninety minutes, Justice Sunita Gupta of the Delhi High Court today refused to grant any interim relief to Tarun Tejpal. The High Court was hearing an anticipatory bail petition filed by Tejpal fearing arrest by the Goa police in a case of alleged sexual assault..Tejpal, the managing editor of Indian magazine Tehelka, has been accused of sexually assaulting a junior colleague of his at Goa during Tehelka’s ThinkFest event organized in the first half of November this year..Appearing for Tejpal, Senior Advocates KTS Tulsi and Geeta Luthra argued that this was a fit case for granting of bail. Claiming that Tejpal was being unfairly targeted by the BJP-led government in Goa, Tulsi argued that interim relief must be given in the instant case. Tulsi made repeated references to the fact that Tehelka was behind Operation West End, a sting operation which caught the then-BJP President, Bangaru Laxman accepting a bribe on camera. “[The BJP] has a bone to pick with me,” argued Tulsi, “they want to teach me a lesson.”.The Senior Advocate also questioned the haste with which the Goa police registered the FIR as well as the fact that all that was being sought was protection till the time Tejpal approached the competent court in Goa for bail..Countering this line of argument, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Goa, said that not only did the Delhi High Court lack jurisdiction, but also the offences involved were extremely serious in nature. Rohatgi claimed that this offence reflected “depravity of the highest order”..After hearing both parties, the Court directed the matter to be listed for November 29, 2013 when it will pass orders..Update on November 28, 2013 – A day before the High Court was to decide on the bail plea, Tejpal withdrew the petition, contending that he would, “approach [an] appropriate court for [the] appropriate remedy“.