SC allows Tehelka`s Tarun Tejpal to attend mother`s funeral

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday granted three-week interim bail to Tehalka`s founder-editor Tarun Tejpal, who is presently behind the bar on charges of sexual harassment, to attend his mother`s funeral and subsequent rituals. Earlier in the day, Tejpal`s lawyer Sandeep Kapur had filed a plea before the bench of justices B S Chauhan and AK Sikri of the Supreme Court, seeking his release on grounds of his mother`s funeral. The bench had said the file of the case was not before it and it would consider the matter after going through the file. Tejpal`s mother Shakuntala Tejpal passed away after being ill for sometime, his lawyer said today. She was 87. Shakuntala was suffering from brain tumour and was living in Tejpal`s house at Moira in North Goa. "She expired last evening at Tejpal`s Goa residence. The decision is yet to be taken whether the final rites would be conducted in Goa or Delhi," Tejpal`s lawyer Sandip Kapoor told PTI, adding that the family members will take a call on it. She had been admitted to a hospital in Mapusa but was later discharged. 50-year-old Tejpal has been chargesheeted for allegedly raping, sexually harassing and outraging the modesty of a junior colleague during an event held at a hotel in Goa in November last year. Tejpal was arrested on November 30, 2013. He has been accused of sexually assaulting the victim on November 7 and repeating the offence the next day. He is currently in judicial custody and lodged at Sada sub-jail in Goa`s Vasco town. (With PTI inputs)