scorecardresearch
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
Advertisement

M J Akbar resigns after flurry of #MeToo allegations

M J Akbar resigns: The former editor was accused of sexual harassment by his former colleagues during his stint as editor of The Asian Age

MJ Akbar digs in heels, says allegations ‘fabricated’, threatens legal action M J Akbar (File Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Junior foreign minister MJ Akbar, who has been accused of sexual harassment by over 10 women, resigned from his post on Wednesday. In a statement that was tweeted by news agency ANI, Akbar said he was resigning since he had decided to “seek justice in a court of law in a personal capacity”. He said he would “challenge” the “false accusations” levied against him. His resignation was accepted by President Ramnath Kovind.

Akbar was accused of sexual harassment by former colleagues from his stint as editor of The Asian Age. He had termed the allegations against him as “baseless” and “fabricated” and filed a criminal defamation complaint against journalist Priya Ramani, who was the first to name him.

Ramani was the first to name Akbar in a Twitter post dated October 8, following which over ten women also levelled sexual harassment allegations against him. In a statement issued on Sunday, Akbar had named four other women who had accused him but filed the criminal defamation complaint only against Ramani.

Read in Malayalam | Read in Bengali | Read in Tamil

Akbar, in his complaint, said he was seeking appropriate punitive action.

Advertisement

“That the scandalous allegations levelled against the complainant, by their very tone and tenor, are ex facie defamatory and have not only damaged the goodwill and reputation of the complainant, in his social circles and on the political stage, established years of toil and hard work, but have also affected the personal reputation of the complainant in the community, friends, family and colleagues, thereby causing him irreparable loss and tremendous distress,” his complaint stated.

Also read: Mr Akbar must go

After the complaint was filed, as many as 20 journalists who have worked under him went on record to ask the court to “consider testimonies of sexual harassment of some of us at the hands of” Akbar and of others “who bore witness to this harassment.”

Festive offer

A Delhi court is scheduled to hear his complaint against Ramani on Thursday.

First uploaded on: 17-10-2018 at 16:55 IST
Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
shorts
Maguntas
Political PulseUpdated: March 28, 2024 22:43 IST

Away from the national capital’s courtroom where the case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is playing out, two key figures embroiled in the excise policy case – four-time MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his son Raghava Magunta Reddy – are busy campaigning for BJP ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP)

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
close