An Indian minister has slammed allegations of sexual misconduct leveled at him by at least 10 women as “lies” and has filed a lawsuit against the first one who accused him of harassment.

Junior Foreign Minister MJ Akbar, 67, filed a defamation suit against journalist Priya Ramani after she publicly accused him on Twitter of sexually harassing her.

I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didn’t “do” anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator—maybe they’ll share. #ultihttps://t.co/5jVU5WHHo7 — Priya Ramani (@priyaramani) October 8, 2018

Remaining silent on the allegations until he got back from a trip to Nigeria last week, the minister on Sunday blasted the allegations made against him by the group of women, branding them “false and fabricated.”

“Accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections.

“Whatever be the case, now that I have returned, my lawyers will look into these wild and baseless allegations in order to decide our future course of legal action,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

Ramani was the first to level allegations of harassment against the minister when she claimed last Tuesday that Akbar was the same unnamed man she accused of harassment in an article for Vogue in 2017.

Since then, at least another dozen women have accused Akbar of sexual assault. They include journalist Suparna Sharma, who revealed to the Indian Express news site how “Akbar plucked my bra strap” and allegedly stared at her breasts.

Another tweeted:

So many of us have an MJ story. "Can I come over to your house with a bottle of rum?" he said. NO, was the answer.... Couldnt 'do' anything. Some dont get the meaning of No... they move on to the next, dont they https://t.co/eMnO6Y3PNX — Harinder Baweja (@shammybaweja) October 8, 2018

Akbar, considered to have been one of India’s most influential editors as he oversaw the output of English-language newspapers The Telegraph and The Asian Age, is the most high profile figure to be named in what has been branded India’s belated #MeToo campaign. He became minister in 2016.

He suggested the “storm” of allegations may have been guided by political motivations as India braces for elections in the first half of 2019.

“Why has this storm risen a few months before a general election?” he asked. “Is there an agenda? You be the judge,” he said.

Commenting on the lawsuit, Ramani told the Indian Express Sunday that there is “no conspiracy” against him, before stressing the “great cost” at which she and the rest of the complainants came out.

Harinder Baweja, another woman who named Akbar as her abuser, tweeted his argument is “insane.”

All the women who tried to deal with the trauma for two to three decades and were now encouraged to share their pain, had the general election in mind. How absurd https://t.co/YFoVkrX7Fi — Harinder Baweja (@shammybaweja) October 14, 2018

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has not commented on the allegations, while BJP President Amit Shah has said the allegations would have to be investigated.





Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!