NEW DELHI, Nov 24: The chief editor of India’s premier investigative magazine Tehelka, who quit his post this week over charges of raping a junior colleague who was his daughter’s best friend, faces arrest, reports said on Saturday.

The female journalist who cannot be named under India’s anti-rape laws, has accused colleague and Tehelka founder and editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal of molesting her in a hotel lift in Goa.

The incident allegedly happened twice after they escorted Hollywood star Robert Di Niro to his room in a Goa hotel during a literary festival hosted by Tehelka.

Mr Tejpal has not been seen in public since the scandal broke this week but has denied the charges of rape although he has apologised to the girl for seeking sexual liaison with her.

The alleged victim issued a statement on Saturday that said pressure was being exerted on her and her family at an ‘intensely traumatic’ time to withdraw the stand she has taken.

She said one of Mr Tejpal’s family members had visited her house and asked her mother to save the Tehelka boss and divulge legal details and the victim’s motives in pursuing the case.

A team of Goa police is already in the premises of the Tehelka office and has reportedly questioned Shoma Chaudhury, the group’s managing editor, to ascertain if she was complicit in the said offence. The Goa police have registered an FIR under several sections, including rape.

Mr Tejpal shot to prominence at the head of a clutch of exposes carried out as sting operations to show corruption in defence deals.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Vajpayee administration was particularly incensed with him. The sting caught the party’s president allegedly taking money for the deal. He had to resign.

While Mr Tejpal has at once let down his many admirers in the liberal, secular political corner with the apparent assault on a young colleague, the scandal has come at a time when rightwing political groups and their corporate allies were on the mat in a stalking scandal known as Snoopgate.