former employee of Tehelka summarizing this criticism as "they [Tehelka's management] said it’s their business to suspect people’s intentions but refused to let others question them. I doubt they even followed half of the strict rules they set for others". Sexual assault case against Tejpal The sexual assault allegations against Tejpal in November 2013 received intense public attention and invited the media scrutiny of Tehelka. Tejpal's and Shoma Chaudhury's behavior immediately after the allegations emerged were seen as hypocrisy given Tehelka had previously published a special issue on sexual violence in India and highlighted victim's rights in February 2013. Within days of the sexual assault allegations, Tehelka emails and messages showed an attempt to "tarnish the victim's reputation". According to Tunku Varadarajan, the rhetoric in Tehelka about women's right sounded hollow, and "Tejpal is, perhaps, just another unreconstructed, predatory Indian male who was playing the part of politically correct editor for commercial effect" at Tehelka. Further, both Tejpal and his fellow Tehelka executive Chaudhury, "sought to minimize the damage by private treaty" with the victim, calling the assault as a "lapse of judgment", "awful misreading of the situation" and an "untoward incident", indicative of double standards in Tehelka for behavior that "carried a penalty of significant jail-time in the world outside Tehelka", states Varadarajan. Ownership As of 2013, Tehelka was running significant losses every year, and the Indian media questioned how and why these losses were being bankrolled by the industrialist and Trinamool Congress member K. D. Singh and his shell company Anant Media Private Limited and Alchemist group. The politician K. D. Singh has been accused of launching an undercover sting operation through an employee of Tehelka – Mathew Samuel – against politicians of his own party Trinamool Congress.Narada sting: Kolkata Police files criminal case against TMC MP Kanwar Deep Singh, Live Mint, Arkamoy Dutta Majumdar (23 March 2017) Both Singh – the once majority shareholder of Tehelka – and his companies remain a target of serious fraud investigations including a ponzi scheme in West Bengal.Sebi bans Trinamool MP K D Singh from market, Business Standard (6 August 2015) Sting journalism After "Operation West End", Tehelka "sting journalism" influenced the Indian media. Within five years, its news channels began to regularly feature sting operations. Tejpal called it the "greatest tool of journalistic investigation and exposure" and that it was for public interest. Inspired by Tehelka's method and the resulting