The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused relief to former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, and allowed a lower court to frame charges against him, IANS reported. The High Court, however, said the trial could begin only after it gave its consent.

The matter will be taken up in November, a report in The Times of India said.

The court’s direction was in response to Tejpal’s decision to challenge the framing of charges against him by the Additional North Goa District and Sessions court, for allegedly raping a colleague during a conference in Goa in 2013.

On September 7, the court in Goa’s Mapusa decided to charge Tejpal for rape, but Tejpal’s counsel Aman Lekhi argued that the accusations of rape were false and the prosecution had delayed handing over the evidence to him by three years, The Hindu reported.

The rape case

Tejpal is accused of raping a junior colleague in a hotel elevator at an annual event organised by the magazine in Goa in 2013. In an an internal email, Tejpal had claimed the incident was a “lapse of judgment”.

The Goa Crime Branch filed a charge sheet in the case in 2014. He was charged under multiple sections including 354A (sexual harassment), 341 and 342 (wrongful restraint) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code. He was arrested in the case, but granted bail by the Supreme Court in July 2014.