Tejpal : How much money has been spend on rape charge investigation?
20 Apr, 2014Tehelka Founder Editor Tarun Tejpal has filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking information about the total quantum of money spent on the exercise of investigating and prosecuting him in the rape case. The 50 year old journalist Tejpal was arrested on November 30 and has been chargesheeted by the Goa police for raping a junior female colleague last year. His bail petition is pending before the Supreme Court. In his application he has desired to know:
- the number of lawyers engaged by the state government in the case
- the amount of money paid by the Goa state government to the Special Public Prosecutor for fighting the case against him in various courts, including the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court
- the number of police officers or officials assigned to investigate the charges of rape against him
- the details of travelling and other miscellaneous expenses incurred by the officials including the travelling expenses made for the travel between Goa-Mumbai and Goa-Delhi to gather evidence against him.
The application containing four queries is under scrutiny to evaluate whether the information sought can be given under the provisions of the RTI Act.