#MeToo: MJ Akbar Did Not Approach Court With Clean Hands, Says Priya Ramani

Journalist Priya Ramani Friday alleged before a Delhi court that former union minister MJ Akbar did not approach the court with clean hands in his criminal defamation complaint against her.

She made the submission during the final hearing in the complaint filed by Akbar against her for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of sexual misconduct 20 years back.

Senior advocate Rebecca John, representing Ramani, said her allegations of sexual misconduct against Akbar, made in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018, were her truth and were made in public good.

For a senior editor and a minister at that time, was there no obligation on him to state that there were other allegations against him, that Ramani’s was not an isolated incident, John questioned.

"It seems that apart from Ramani, nobody else had made any allegations against Akbar. By then Ghazala Wahab had written about her experience. At least 15 women had spoken up on Twitter," she said before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar.

She added that these women did not know each other.

"The failure of Mr Akbar in mentioning the allegations by other women, and pretending that only Ramani's statement defamed him... Akbar has not come to court with clean hands and failed a fraud on the court," she said.

Akbar has denied all allegations.

Note: Priya Ramani writes a regular column for BloombergQuint. You can read 'Rational Anthem' here.