In an article in ‘The Washington Post’, she had written that the former Union Minister raped her when she worked under him at ‘Asian Age.’

Former Union Minister M.J. Akbar on Friday denied accusations of rape by United States-based journalist Pallavi Gogoi, claiming he had a consensual relationship spanning several months with her but it ended “perhaps not on the best note.”

In a separate statement, his wife Mallika Akbar also dismissed Ms. Gogoi’s accusations, made in a Washington Post article on Friday, as a “lie.”

“Somewhere around 1994, Ms. Pallavi Gogoi and I entered into a consensual relationship that spanned several months,” Mr. Akbar, who recently resigned as the junior Minister for External Affairs following a spate of #MeToo allegations, said in a statement released on Friday, November 2, 2018.

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“This relationship [with Gogoi] gave rise to talk and would later cause significant strife in my home life as well. This consensual relationship ended, perhaps not on the best note,” he said.

Akbar wife's statement

In a statement to ANI , Ms. Akbar said :

“I have been silent all this while as a ‘me too’ campaign has been unleashed against my husband, Mr. M.J. Akbar. However, the Washington Post article by Pallavi Gogoi alleging that she was raped by him forces me to step in with what I know to be true.

“Over 20 yrs ago, Pallavi Gogoi caused unhappiness and discord in our home. I learned of her and my husband’s involvement through her calls and her public display of affection in my presence. In her flaunting the relationship, she caused anguish and hurt to my entire family.

“At an Asian Age party at our home, crowded with young journalists, I have watched with mortification and pain as they danced close. I had confronted my husband at the time and he decided to prioritise his family.

“Tushita Patel and Pallavi Gogoi were often at our home, happily drinking and dining with us. Neither carried the haunted look of victims of sexual assault. I don’t know Pallavi’s reasons for telling this lie but a lie it is.”

Ms. Gogoi had written in the Washington Post that Mr. Akbar raped her over two decades ago, when she was working under him at Asian Age, the newspaper he founded.

“There’s nothing for me to gain from speaking out now. In fact, it is heart-wrenching because people I am close to will feel my pain. Akbar has threatened to sue other women who come forward. And maybe there are implications that I haven’t thought of. But I am writing this because I know what it is like to be victimized by powerful men like Akbar,” Ms. Gogoi had written.