On the backfoot, news website Tehelka on Wednesday justified using prostitutes and taping the sex in its sting operation to expose corruption in defence deals, saying the motive justified everything.
Reacting swiftly to a newspaper report that it had arranged prostitutes for three Army officers and then taped the act and subsequent fracas in Parliament with the Samata Party calling for the arrest of its editor, Tehelka denied that it had suppressed evidence. Tehelka chief Tarun Tejpal said at a press conference here on Wednesday that the website had "neither exploited nor suppressed the tapes", which had been given to the Army five months ago and the Venkatswamy Commission three months ago Tehelka, he said, had taken an ethical decision not to put the tapes in the public domain as they did not further the story and it was felt that the sex and sleaze aspect would then swamp the real issue. "The purpose of the expose was not sex and sleaze. It was to nail the corrupt people in governance. Had we run even a frame of the sex, it would have distracted public attention from the larger issue of corruption," he said, adding the Army too had requested Tehelka not to release these tapes. Asked why the sex had been taped, Tejpal said it had been done for "functional reasons". "Money, booze and women are the done thing in arms deals. Moreover, the demand had come from their side. They insisted on it, " Tejpal said when asked why the reporter, posing as an arms dealer, had offered his secretary to one of the officers.