Tarun Tejpal and Tehelka magazine will soon part ways.
Trinamool Congress member of Parliament and businessman KD Singh, who holds a majority stake in the company that owns the magazine, plans to take over Tejpal's stake and rope in more investors for the magazine. Singh is also on the lookout for an industry veteran to fill the position made vacant after Tejpal's arrest last year.
The dilution of Tejpal and his family's 22% holding in Anant Media will take place on March 1. Singh, however, emphasised that he will not take over editorial control of the magazine, which has been on shaky ground since November 2013 after editor Tejpal was accused of alleged sexual assault by a subordinate. Tejpal is currently behind bars at a Vasco prison in Goa.
"I am not taking control over editorial content. Instead, we will be having silent control," Singh told dna. "We will take care of bringing in people. My interest is not in owning Tehelka, but in saving it from dying. My first aim is to make sure that the magazine survives. The jobs of so many people are at stake."
Singh's company Royal Building and Infrastructure Private Limited (RBIPL) has invested nearly Rs 32 crore and has a 66% stake in Anant Media, which owns Tehelka. The timing of his decision to dilute Tejpal's stake could be strategic. His party's chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee is eyeing a national political foray in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. With help from activist Anna Hazare, Mamata is planning to field TMC candidates in north India and Maharashtra.
Explaining the acquisition, Singh said, "Currently, I have about 65% stake. Whether it will become 70% or 90% will depend on other interested investors. But the principle decision is Tarun's disassociation with the company. There are some more investors who are interested in acquiring the stakes. At this time Tejpal's stake will be brought down or diluted."
Singh also said he plans to set up a fresh board of directors but declined from naming the people who will be part of the new board.
Singh had expressed his desire to entirely exit from the venture soon after it gained bad press over Tejpal's alleged sexual assault in November 2013. "I was willing to exit but the kind of pricing that was being offered was extremely low. Then, some senior employees met me and asked me to save the company from dying and that's what I am doing now," said Singh.
Singh himself has been marred by a slew of controversies. He is alleged to have paid his way into the upper house of the Parliament. An IBN-Cobrapost investigation found that MLAs in Jharkhand took money to vote for a particular candidate during elections. And in 2009, 11 premises of Singh's Alchemist Group were raided by the income tax department. He had to surrender an unaccounted income of Rs 22 crore.
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