A Delhi Court on Monday reserved the verdict in the former Union Minister MJ Akbar's defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani for February 10. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar reserved the judgment after Akbar as well as Ramani completed their arguments. The court also allowed both the parties to file their written submissions, if any, within five days.
The court is hearing a case of defamation against Priya Ramani who had accused Akbar of sexual misconduct over 20 years ago when he was a journalist. Priya Ramani had made allegations of sexual misconduct against Akbar in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018. Referring to the former Union minister MJ Akbar, Priya Ramani told the court last week that a person accused of sexual harassment cannot be of high reputation.
Ramani, who had made allegation of sexual misconduct against Akbar in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018, also accused him of undermining the sexual harassment that women go through at workplace by terming her allegations as fictitious.
She made the submission before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar through senior advocate Rebecca John during the final hearing of Akbar's criminal complaint against her for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of sexual misconduct. John said though it was a fact that Ramani did not name Akbar in the Vogue article of 2017, in her evidence she has explained that it was #MeToo that gave her the courage to name him in her tweet.
Merely because the accused (Ramani) had not been named in 2017, it does not take away the credibility of the allegations made at the height of the #MeToo, she said.
Countering Akbar's allegation that Ramani's claim of having faced sexual misconduct was fictitious, Rebecca John said, "How is this fictitious? When I recall something that happens to me, it is a real life story and not fictitious. You are undermining the sexual harassment that women go through at workplace."
Ramani further denied Akbar's allegations that she did not make proper enquiry before writing the article, and said, "When I (Ramani) am talking about myself and my own personal experience, whom do I inquire from? I am an eye witness in my own case. I could have only asked Akbar. We were the only two in the case," she said.
Akbar had filed the criminal defamation complaint against Ramani on October 15, 2018. He resigned as Union Minister on October 17, 2018.
Akbar had earlier told the court that Ramani had defamed him by calling him with adjectives such as 'media's biggest predator' that harmed his reputation. He has denied all the allegations of sexual harassment against the women who came forward during #MeToo campaign against him. Over 20 women came up with accounts of the alleged sexual harassment by Akbar while they were working as journalists under him. He termed the allegations false, fabricated and deeply distressing and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.