Panaji/New Delhi, Nov 27
The Goa Police today asked Tehelka magazine Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexually assaulting a junior woman colleague, to appear before the investigating officer by 3 pm on Thursday. The woman journalist deposed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Panaji for over eight hours, corroborating facts she had mentioned in her email.

The woman journalist who arrived in Goa today morning was taken to the CJM Panaji by investigating officer Sunita Sawant, after which she gave her statement for over eight hours, official sources said.

Soon after her statement was recorded, the Goa Police issued summons to Tejpal asking him to remain present before the investigating officer by 3 pm tomorrow. "The police have summoned the accused," said Goa DIG 
OP Mishra.

Sources said the journalist was stable while her statement was being recorded and repeated all she had mentioned in her email. In a detailed statement, she narrated how Tejpal forced himself on her inside the hotel lift during the 'ThinkFest' event.

She said that though she had tried to stop the accused, Tejpal persisted. She was sexually molested by him on two occasions on November 7 and November 8. In Delhi, Tejpal failed to get any immediate relief as the High Court decided to pronounce its order on his anticipatory bail plea on Friday.

"The order is reserved for November 29," Justice Sunita Gupta said while rejecting the plea of senior advocates KTS Tulsi and Geeta Luthra that Tejpal should not be arrested till then. Refuting Tejpal's submissions, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Goa Police, said, "This is a man married with a family and was dealing with an employee who is a friend of his daughter and whom he knew from her childhood. This offence shows the depravity of the highest order." — Agencies