India, Nov. 6 -- The Supreme Court on Friday refused to suspend the 10-year sentence passed by the Goa bench of the Bombay high court to journalist Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 rape case.

The court agreed to hear his appeal challenging the Bombay HC order passed in August convicting him in the 2013 incident.

A bench of justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale passed the order while hearing Tejpal's appeal challenging the conviction and 10-year sentence passed by the Goa bench of the Bombay high court in a case where he had been acquitted by the trial court in Goa.

The court said, "On a prima facie view, particularly with regard to the prosecution witnesses and the material produced and the messages on record, we do not find it a fit ground to gran...