After Tejpal row, will Tehelka shut down?

Investigative news magazine Tehelka may be on the verge of shutting down as funding has been hard to come by following the allegations of rape against founder Tarun Tejpal. “Sources in the Tehelka management say that efforts to raise finances for 2014 have come a cropper and the announcement of the shutdown could come within days,” reported India Today. [caption id=“attachment_1324565” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Tarun Tejpal. AFP[/caption] While Tehelka has seen financial troubles earlier, this time with Tejpal’s image and the brand taking a beating, the magazine may shut shop for good. India Today reports, “Before the infamous Thinkfest in early November, Tarun Tejpal was reportedly in the final stages of closing a major financial deal with a leading Indian industrialist turned politician. The industrialist who was planning to fund Tehelka confirmed that he was in talks with Tejpal but said he was no longer planning to fund the magazine.” Meanwhile, as Tehelka is looking at a bleak future, Tejpal is behind the bars. India Today reports, “Some well known former editors have come forward and offered to set up an editorial board to guide the magazine through choppy waters.” Tejpal will be produced in court here for a bail hearing Saturday. Tejpal, who was arrested 30 November, 2013, after a junior colleague accused him of sexual assault during a conference held at a Goa resort, has already spent over a month behind bars, both in police as well as judicial custody. He is presently lodged in Sada sub-jail in the port town of Vasco, as prisoner number 624 . Tejpal’s bail hearing will be heard by a lady Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) in Panaji. With agency inputs