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What Tehelka didn`t tell you: It used prostitutes, taped the sex : The Indian Express
That Tehelka offered and paid money to ``expose`` corruption in high places is now well known. What`s not is that, as part of its ``investigative journalism,`` it also arranged for prostitutes to have sex with three Army officers and recorded these sex acts
That Tehelka offered and paid money to ‘‘expose’’ corruption in high places is now well known. What’s not is that, as part of its ‘‘investigative journalism,’’ it also arranged for prostitutes to have sex with three Army officers and recorded these sex acts
This seamy aspect of Tehelka’s sting operation could be prime material for blackmail but as of now, it lies in 29 pages of transcripts—of three tapes—prepared by the Venkataswami Commission. The commission, probing the Tehelka controversy, received 90 hours of ‘‘video tape evidence’’ from Tehelka.
Interestingly, these tapes did not figure in the version that Tehelka made public earlier this year. The three officers who figure in these tapes are among five against whom court-martial proceedings are on. The transcript, copies of which are with The Indian Express, describe, in language too explicit to be printed in this newspaper, two meetings that Tehelka representatives arranged between Army officers and prostitutes in a five-star hotel in New Delhi in September and November last year.
The transcript, which includes explicit descriptions of sexual acts, shows that Tehelka representatives not only procured prostitutes, but also helped in getting condoms for their guests and even negotiated the kind of sexual favours that the prostitute might provide. Ironically, Tehelka, which has all along aggressively defended its methods, never mentioned these tapes in public. In fact, the transcript posted on its website coyly refers to one of these episodes as ‘‘hospitality of West End International at a Five Star Hotel.’’
However, the ‘‘hospitality,’’ according to the Commission’s transcripts, is described on tape by a Tehelka representative identified as T1, as some ‘‘special treat’’ he has arranged for two Army officers. The highlights of the two meetings, according to the transcripts:
Interestingly, these tapes did not figure in the version that Tehelka made public earlier this year. The three officers who figure in these tapes are among five against whom court-martial proceedings are on. The transcript, copies of which are with The Indian Express, describe, in language too explicit to be printed in this newspaper, two meetings that Tehelka representatives arranged between Army officers and prostitutes in a five-star hotel in New Delhi in September and November last year.
The transcript, which includes explicit descriptions of sexual acts, shows that Tehelka representatives not only procured prostitutes, but also helped in getting condoms for their guests and even negotiated the kind of sexual favours that the prostitute might provide. Ironically, Tehelka, which has all along aggressively defended its methods, never mentioned these tapes in public. In fact, the transcript posted on its website coyly refers to one of these episodes as ‘‘hospitality of West End International at a Five Star Hotel.’’
However, the ‘‘hospitality,’’ according to the Commission’s transcripts, is described on tape by a Tehelka representative identified as T1, as some ‘‘special treat’’ he has arranged for two Army officers. The highlights of the two meetings, according to the transcripts:
The first is on September 18 last year at a five-star hotel in the capital. Tehelka’s original contact in the Defence Ministry, senior section officer P Sashi, is sent off ‘‘to get two ‘parachutes’, (also known as) condoms, from a nearby shop.’’ When Sashi fails to get these, a Tehelka representative, identified as ‘T’, goes off in search himself.