Tejpal says allegation of sexual assault at BJP`s behest

New Delhi: Tehelka Editor Tarun Tejpal, who has been accused of sexually assaulting his junior colleague at a hotel in Goa, today cried foul before the Delhi High Court alleging that he has been implicated at the behest of BJP which is biased against him.

In his anticipatory bail plea, Tejpal said he had exposed corruption in defence deals in 2001 due to which BJP`s then President Bangaru Laxman as well as then defence minister had to resign and he and Tehelka have been targeted due to this. "The bias of BJP against the applicant (Tejpal) is well known fact and has earlier been nastily manifested in a manner in which Tehelka was targeted post its expose on corrupt defence deals in 2001 and was forced to shut down operations for over three years as well as many of its employees being implicated in false criminal cases," he said in his plea. "The mannerism and the scale in which BJP has unleashed the wrath of its vengeance upon the applicant in grab of the present FIR is synonymous to the previous attempts of the BJP to malign and target the applicant and the same is apparent by the statements issued by various party leaders including the present Chief Minister of Goa," the plea filed before Justice Sunita Gupta said. The court, however, refused to grant interim protection against arrest to him and asked the counsel for Goa Police to file its reply, if any, and fixed the hearing for tomorrow.