Union Minister MJ Akbar, accused of sexual harassment in India’s #MeToo movement, has filed a defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani.
MJ Akbar had said yesterday that his lawyers were exploring legal action on the allegations, which prompted calls for his resignation from the government.
The former editor of newspapers like The Telegraph and the Asian Age, was named by Priya Ramani in a tweet on October 8. She said MJ Akbar was the man she had referred to in an incident she had shared in a magazine article a year ago, when the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the US fuelled an avalanche of #MeToo allegations.
In his defamation suit, Mr Akbar has accused her of “willfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously defaming” him on “completely false, frivolous, unjustifiable and scandalous grounds” and harming his goodwill and reputation.
The minister said the journalist had caused “great humiliation” to him.
On Sunday, as he returned from a week-long foreign trip, Mr Akbar made it clear he would contest the allegations rather than resign.
“Accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections,” said Mr Akbar, 67, in in his first detailed response to the allegations that exploded in his absence. He called the allegations false, fabricated, wild and baseless, and “spiced up by innuendo”.
Alleging that the accusers had come out with the charges just a few months before the general election, Mr Akbar said: “Lies do not have legs, but they do contain poison, which can be whipped into a frenzy.”
After Ms Ramani named him, more women posted their stories against MJ Akbar – Prerna Singh Bindra, Ghazala Wahab, Shutapa Paul, Anju Bharti, Suparna Sharma, Shuma Raha, Malini Bhupta, Kanika Gahlout, Kadambari M Wade, Majlie de Puy Kamp and Ruth David.
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