its unethical methods such as procuring and providing prostitutes for its undercover sting. According to Navdip Dhariwal, the Tehelka staff saw the government inquiry as a direct attack on them. By 2003, Tehelka staff decreased from 120 to 3 and the website shut down because of debts. Bahal left Tehelka in the same year, saying the government was "bogging us down with a lot of legal nonsense" and later founded Cobrapost.com. In 2004, after more than 200 writers, lawyers, business people and activists became founder-subscribers, Tehelka was relaunched as a reader-financed weekly newspaper in tabloid format. Among the supporters were activist Arundhati Roy, Congress party politician Shashi Tharoor and Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul. It called itself the "People's Paper" and the reporters took a tour around the country promoting what they called "free, fair and fearless" journalism. After its Naroda Patiya sting operation in 2007, it sold around 75,000 to 90,000 copies per week. It still suffered large financial losses, since it attracted very few advertisements and the magazine primarily relied on subscribers and copies sold as of 2008. Tehelka had cumulative losses of through 2013, while being majority owned and financed by Kanwar Deep Singh – an industrialist, a politician and a member of Indian parliament (Rajya Sabha) initially elected by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, later All India Trinamool Congress. Tejpal changed Tehelka from tabloid to magazine in September 2007 to encourage more potential advertisers, but found it difficult because of their sting operations. Tejpal started the Hindi language website in 2007 and then Tehelka's Hindi News magazine. Sanjay Dubey was the executive editor of the Hindi magazine. In the early years, Tarun Tejpal was Tehelka's largest shareholder through his shell company Agni Media. In an interview to The New York Times, Tejpal stated that he covered the losses at Tehelka by soliciting funds from his personal contacts. "THiNK Fest" was started in 2011 as an annual literary festival and promoted as an event of Tehelka, though the program was run by an organisation called Thinkworks Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Tejpal, his sister Neena and managing editor Shoma Chaudhury. It featured Bollywood actors, global thinkers and sessions on new technology. According to The New York Times, during a Tehelka organized "Think Fest" event in November 2013, a staff reporter of Tehelka accused Tejpal of rape and repeated sexual assault. Tejpal was arrested by Goa police and he stepped