The Supreme Court on Friday rejected former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal’s plea to suspend his sentence in the 2013 rape case, where he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for raping a woman journalist inside the elevator of a Goa hotel.

“We are concerned with the suspension of sentence alone…On a prima facie view, we are not inclined to suspend the sentence,” a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale said dismissing his application.

Appearing for Tejpal, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said the charge was that while he was assaulting the survivor inside the elevator, he kept its buttons pressed to ensure that the doors did not open. “The whole story is false…During that two minutes nine seconds, the lift door opened two times at the ground floor.…