Minister sues accuser over claim of sexual harassment
NEW DELHI: India’s junior external affairs minister has filed a criminal case for defamation in court against a woman who has accused him of sexual harassment, his lawyer said.
Minister M.J. Akbar filed a case against journalist Priya Ramani, the first of more than a dozen women to allege harassment in recent weeks from his days as a newspaper editor, Mr Akbar’s lawyer Sandeep Kapur said.
The move came as dozens of members of the opposition India National Congress party’s youth wing clashed with police outside Mr Akbar’s New Delhi home, demanding his resignation.
On Sunday, Mr Akbar denied the allegations as “false, baseless and wild”.
The string of allegations began with a tweet from Ms Ramani in which she identified Mr Akbar as the man who had harassed her as mentioned in an article for Vogue India a year ago.
Since then, more than a dozen other women, mostly journalists who worked with Mr Akbar or interviewed with him for jobs when he was an editor in Kolkata and New Delhi, have accused him of sexual harassment in the #Metoo campaign sweeping India.
In a statement, Mr
Akbar said Ms Ramani and another of his accusers had continued working with him after the alleged harassment, which, he said, “clearly establishes that they had no apprehension and discomfort”.