Panaji: After a Goa court acquitted him on Friday of rape charges in the 2013 case, journalist Tarun Tejpal said the past seven and a half years have been "wounds" for his family as he faced "devastating consequences because of the false allegations levelled against him." The former editor-in-chief of Tehelka Magazine also thanked the court for "rigorous and impartial prosecution" in the case.

The sessions court has acquitted Tejpal of sexually assaulting his fellow woman at a five-star hotel in the state. Tejpal, who was present in the court during the verdict, later issued a statement, which his daughter Tara read in front of the media outside the court building in Mapusa Nagar near Panaji. In the statement, he said, "The last seven and a half years have been very painful for my family because we have to face disastrous consequences for these false allegations at every aspect of our personal, professional and public life."

Tejpal said, "We had to suffer a lot, but even then we cooperated fully with the Goa police and the legal machinery through hundreds of court proceedings." He said that "he and his family followed every order of the due process and remained bound by constitutional principles." "We also tried to uphold every criterion of decency required in such a case," he said.

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