A court in Goa has sentenced a 31-year-old local resident to rigorous life imprisonment for the rape and murder of Irish-British national Danielle McLaughin in 2017. The accused, Vikat Bhagat, was found guilty of raping and murdering the 28-year-old tourist, whose body was found in a forested area in Canacona village of South Goa on March 14, 2017. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 for the rape and murder and Rs 10,000 for the destruction of evidence.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Tejpal, told the bench they would require some time to prepare.
Tejpal is accused of raping his journalist colleague inside an elevator of a five-star hotel in Goa in 2013 during an event organised by the news magazine.
The Goa bench of the Bombay high court on Thursday directed a sessions court, which recently acquitted journalist Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 rape case, to redact all references in its judgment which disclose the victim's identity, before uploading it on the court's website.
A Goa court on Wednesday rejected an application filed by Tehelka magazine Editor Tarun Tejpal seeking permission to get a fan installed in the police lock up where he is being kept.
Justice S C Gupte issued a notice to Tejpal and posted for June 24 the appeal filed by the Goa government against the sessions court's order acquitting him in the case.
In the 500-page order, the court has observed that the Investigating Officer (Crime Branch officer Sunita Sawant) did not conduct investigation on vital points of the eight-year-old case.
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Tehelka founder-editor Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexually assaulting a colleague, will remain in the custody of Goa police for four more days.
The Goa government in its appeal before the Bombay high court against journalist Tarun Tejpal's acquittal in a rape case said it was a fit case for retrial, citing the trial court's lack of understanding of a victim's post-trauma behaviour and censuring of her character.
essions judge Kshama Joshi, in the 500-page judgment on May 21, that was made available late Tuesday night, said the evidence submitted by the prosecution and defence creates doubt on the truthfulness of the prosecutrix (victim) and noted that the benefit of doubt has to be given to the accused in the absence of corroborative evidence. T
Tejpal, former Tehelka editor-in-chief, was accused of sexually assaulting the colleague inside the elevator of a luxury hotel in Goa in 2013.
Tehelka's founder editor Tarun Tejpal was on Wednesday remanded in 12-day judicial custody in the case of alleged sexual assault of a junior woman colleague by a local court which agreed to his plea of a special cell at Sada sub-jail, where he was taken.
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