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Goa police on Wednesday issued summons to Tehelka’s former Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury and three others to record their statements before a magistrate in the case relating to Tarun Tejpal’s alleged sexual assault of a woman colleague of the magazine.
Deputy Inspector General of police O P Mishra told PTI that the summons have been issued to Chaudhury and the others but refused to divulge when they would be called to record the statements.
Sources, however, said they might be called on Friday or Saturday for recording the statements. Chaudhury and three witnesses are the ones in whom the victim had confided about what transpired between her and Tejpal at a five-star hotel on two occasions when the accused had allegedly sexually assaulted her during an event organised here last month.
Goa police had earlier sought permission from the chief judicial magistrate to summon Chaudhury and three witnesses to record their statements before it and the magistrate has agreed to record their statements.
Any statement or confession recorded by a metropolitan or judicial magistrate under section 164 of CrPC is admissible as evidence in a court and if the person retracts from it can be tried on the charge of perjury.
A team of Goa police had already recorded Chaudhury's statement in Delhi before she quit as Managing Editor amid outrage over her alleged attempts to cover up the incident allegedly involving Tejpal.
Chaudhury's statement is "very crucial" as she was the first person to have come to know of alleged sexual assault on the young journalist by Tejpal.
Tejpal was today subjected to a second round of medical tests, just a couple of days after he had undergone several medical examinations, including a potency test, whose result was positive.
