The Hindu : We have not violated any law, says Tehelka

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 04, 2002

National

National

We have not violated any law, says Tehelka

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI July 3. The Tehelka reporter, Anirudh Bahal, today justified the use of call girls by the portal saying that it was done in public interest to expose corruption in defence deals and there was no ulterior motive in the whole exercise.

Deposing before the Justice Venkataswami Commission, Mr. Bahal said: "To me, we have not violated any law''. The portal had committed no offence by employing call girls.

He also denied the allegation that the portal had resorted to this practice for character assassination of certain Army officers and others to blackmail them for commercial gains.

Asked during cross examination whether he was not duty-bound to inform the police if he had come across any corruption in the defence deals, he said: "There is no obligation on the media to report to the authority of what story they are doing."

He also denied the allegation that the portal had doctored, interpolated and tampered with the tapes to sensationalise the whole episode. He said that while transcribing over half a million words, there could have been possible errors, which were minimal and did not alter the crux of the story.

Denying entrapment of officials by offering them bribes, he said: "The very fact that money changed hands'' was enough to show that there was corruption in defence deals and no other evidence was required.

Centre's charge

Earlier, when the Additional Solicitor-General, Kirit Rawal, charged that the `expose' was not a "journalistic endeavour'' but a "commercial venture'' and the portal took benefit of the "sensational'' potential of the story to catch the attention of the public, the Editor-in-Chief, Tarun Tejpal, denied the allegation. Mr. Rawal also pointed out that Mr. Tejpal had not been filing his income tax returns during his employment days in Outlook and had also been evasive of the true information regarding his earnings.

Accusing Mr. Tejpal of deposing falsely, Mr. Rawal said if not him, his representatives were involved in negotiations with the Hindujas and that Mr. Tejpal was actively involved in day-to-day development of the story and knew every detail including about call girls. But Mr. Tejpal denied this charge. He also denied the Government's allegation that the portal received funds from sources in West Asia for sensationalising an event.

The Commission has asked the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, to appear before it next week for examination pertaining to past defence transactions, which figured in the Tehelka tapes.

Justice Venkataswami asked counsel for Mr. Fernandes to ascertain the availability of Mr. Fernandes on July 11, 12 or 13 so that he could appear before the Commission.

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