Victory came with heartbreak: Tejpal on lawyer's death due to Covid


Panaji, May 21 (IANS): Victory in the long drawn rape trial, came with heartbreak for former editor-in-chief of Tehelka Tarun Tejpal, who rued the death of his lead defence lawyer Rajeev Gomes, who succumbed to Covid-19 on May 13 this year.

Tejpal was cleared of all rape charges by a local court, seven-and-a-half years after the editor of the investigative magazine was accused of raping a junior colleage at a Goa resort in 2013.

In a written statement, Tejpal was all praise for his now deceased defence lawyer, who he said was on the cusp of a brilliant career, before Covid got him.

"Seldom does a long-fought for vindication arrive hand in hand with profound heartbreak. Laskweek, my trial lawyer Rajiv Gomes, died of Covid. Dynamic and brilliant, at 47, he was on the brink of a scintillating career as a criminal lawyer," Tejpal said in his statement.

"No person fought harder, and with greater skill, to reclaim my life and reputation. Rajiv used to say to me,'I enjoy money, but I don't work for it. I believe God put me on earth to fight for the innocent'," the former editor also said,adding that he and his family owe a "profound and permanent debt" to Gomes.

"No client can ever hope for a better lawyer than Rajiv. The ever-struggling wheel of justice has lost a solid spoke," Tejpal said.

Gomes' son Sean, who was also a part of Tejpal's defence team also said that it "would have been wonderful if he (Rejeev) had been here to claim victory".

"My father has put in a tremendous amount of hardwork and dedication into this case. The final written argument consisted of 600 plus pages which shows the amount of workload we put in in this case. I was personally honoured to see one of India's best lawyers at work. He worked really hard," Sean said in tribute to his father.

  

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Comment on this article

  • anthony, mangalore

    Fri, May 21 2021

    The misuse of the Judicial system to target and tarnish political opponents has been the hall mark of the BJP Govt to silence political opponents. 5he women in question and her conspirators who raised these false charges should be put behind bars for seven years.

    DisAgree Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse


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