The Goa government has filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting a life imprisonment sentence for journalist Tarun Tejpal after a conviction in a sexual assault case that stemmed from an alleged incident at a 2013 conference in Goa. The petition, submitted by the state’s public prosecutor, argues that the offense warrants the maximum penalty under Indian law given the gravity of the allegations and the impact on the survivor. The move marks a rare instance of a state government directly approaching the apex court to seek a harsher punishment than that imposed by the trial court.
What happened
According to court records, a female journalist accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her during a media conference in October 2013. The allegation led to a criminal complaint filed under sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with sexual assault, criminal intimidation and assault. After a lengthy trial in a Goa court, a sessions judge convicted Tejpal in 2022 and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment, a term that the prosecution deemed
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Story synopsis gathered from: Times of India – Top Stories — source
