Tehelka Scandal:Know the rise and fall of the sting king Tehelka

New Delhi: Tehelka has always been known for its investigative journalism in general, sting operations in particular. It is owned by Anant Media Pvt Ltd. 65% equity in Anant Media Pvt Ltd . 19% equity in the company is held by Tejpal. 5% equity held by a company called Weldon Polymers Pvt Ltd., 0.5% equity is held by Shoma Choudhary. 0.04% equity is held by the Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal. Sibal has clarified that he had in 2003 only given a donation of INR 5 lakh.Its board of directors include, Tarun Tejpal, Neena Sharma (Tejpal's sister), Satish Mehta and 1 other members nominated by the Alchemist group.It was founded by Tarun Tejpal along with Bahal in 2000 as a website. Its office was set up in south New Delhi.Its first sting operation was on match fixing in cricket in 2000 which resulted in banning of cricket players Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and Ajay Sharma. The sting recorded conversations where Board for Control of Cricket (BCCI) officials and cricket players spoke about their links with bookmakers.It came into lime light in In 2001 after its sting operation called “Operation West End”.Where the two reporters, special correspondent Mathew Samuel and Aniruddha Bahal, filmed how they bribed several defence officials and politicians from the then-ruling NDA-led (National Democratic Alliance) Indian government, posing as arms dealers.After Operation West End the journalists alleged that the government was trying to shut them down by tax raids, investigations and cases against them; a financial backer and one reporter were jailed and eventually, the website shut down in 2003.It was relaunched in 2004 as a weekly newspaper and changed it to a magazine from 2007.It gained nation wide publicity with a short span of time.It has won IPI (International Press Institute) India Award for Excellence in Journalism for two consecutive years.But now its is on the verge of end due to ongoing sex scandal involving Tarun Tejpal.Shoma Chaudhury resigned as the managing editor of Tehelka on Thursday, over a week after a junior colleague accused the magazine's founder-editor Tarun Tejpal of sexual assault. With Tejpal having already “recused” himself for six months, there is growing uncertainty about the magazine's future.