Panaji, May 21 (IANS): Victory in the long drawn rape trial, came with heartbreak for former editor-in-chief of Tehelka Tarun Tejpal, who rued the death of his lead defence lawyer Rajeev Gomes, who succumbed to Covid-19 on May 13 this year.

Tejpal was cleared of all rape charges by a local court, seven-and-a-half years after the editor of the investigative magazine was accused of raping a junior colleage at a Goa resort in 2013.

In a written statement, Tejpal was all praise for his now deceased defence lawyer, who he said was on the cusp of a brilliant career, before Covid got him.

"Seldom does a long-fought for vindication arrive hand in hand with profound heartbreak. Laskweek, my trial lawyer Rajiv Gomes, died of Covid. Dynamic and brilliant, at 47, he was on the brink of a scintillating career as a criminal lawyer," Tejpal said in his statement.

"No person fought harder, and with greater skill, to reclaim my life and reputation. Rajiv used to say to me,'I enjoy money, but I don't work for it. I believe God put me on earth to fight for the innocent'," the former editor also said,adding that he and his family owe a "profound and permanent debt" to Gomes.

"No client can ever hope for a better lawyer than Rajiv. The ever-struggling wheel of justice has lost a solid spoke," Tejpal said.

Gomes' son Sean, who was also a part of Tejpal's defence team also said that it "would have been wonderful if he (Rejeev) had been here to claim victory".

"My father has put in a tremendous amount of hardwork and dedication into this case. The final written argument consisted of 600 plus pages which shows the amount of workload we put in in this case. I was personally honoured to see one of India's best lawyers at work. He worked really hard," Sean said in tribute to his father.