New Delhi: Days after publicly apologising for sexually harassing Ira Trivedi, author and columnist Chetan Bhagat has released a series of screenshots on Twitter defending himself against all charges levelled on him.

On Monday morning, Twitterati woke up to a slew of tweets by Bhagat who posted screenshots of a ‘self-explanatory’ email sent by Trivedi in 2013.

“So who kissed whom,” the author of The Girl in Room 105 began his Twitter thread, referring to the email and claimed the charges levelled against him as ‘false’.

So who wanted to kiss whom? @iratrivedi’s self-explanatory email from 2013 to me, esp last line, easily shows her claims from 2010 are false, and she knows this too. This mental harassment of me and my family has to stop. Please don’t harm a movement with #fakecharges #harassed pic.twitter.com/SWeaSCfHLd — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) October 15, 2018

The email that Bhagat shared screenshots of, had a seemingly warm message which ended with a line that read, ‘miss u kiss u’ (SIC), apparently sent by Ira Trivedi. Further advocating for his defence against the charges, Bhagat claimed that back in 2010, he had written a column, (which was according to him targeted at Trivedi) wherein, he extensively wrote against the entitlement of children of IAS officers in the public forum.

Ira Trivedi is the daughter of a Delhi-based IAS officer.

Also, it is she who comes from very powerful family connected to pol party (regularly dropped top names of people in power then ). i was less known in 2010. was intimidated by her. My old col on Air India talks of entitled IAS kid demanding upgrades at Air India counter. It's her pic.twitter.com/GGNGjZgbz9 — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) October 15, 2018

Calling the #MeToo movement a ‘smear campaign, Bhagat asked his followers to ‘not harm a movement with fake charges’ and requested people to stop believing ‘nonsense’.

“A person’s reputation is their most prized asset and takes a lifetime of work to earn. To have these motivated, fake attacks on me is abhorrent and the sickest thing a person can do,” he tweeted.

To those who abused me last few days, hope you will do right by me now. Ultimately, is this movement about the truth or blindly supporting a particular gender? Please don’t let your biases make you believe things that are not true. — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) October 15, 2018

Annoyed by my revelations, more baseless, twisted attacks may come on me, through her friends, wellwishers &/or others. Neither obligated nor inclined to respond. Please don’t believe such nonsense. I may go silent on twitter to heal my family but I won’t be shamed or silenced. — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) October 15, 2018

On October 13, writer Ira Trivedi accused Bhagat and author Suhel Seth for sexually harassing her almost a decade ago. Not just Trivedi, but multiple women have lobbed charges of sexual misconduct against both the men.

According to her, Bhagat had ‘tried to plant a kiss on her lips’ on inviting her for tea at the India International Centre, nearly 10 years ago, for as he said, “a kiss was his prerogative” for buying a hundred copies of her books and donating them to a library in Pune.