#Metoo allegations against me ‘false & fabricated’: Akbar
NEW DELHI: Union minister M J Akbar on Sunday rejected allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against him by several women as “false, fabricated and spiced up”, as he questioned its timing months before the Lok Sabha polls, and vowed legal action. Hours after returning from a trip to Africa, the Minister of State for External Affairs issued a statement trashing the charges, saying accusations without evidence have become a “viral fever” among some sections.
“Why has this storm risen a few months before a general election? Is there an agenda? You be the judge,” he said. “The allegations of misconduct made against me are false and fabricated, spiced up by innuendo and malice. I could not reply earlier as I was on an official tour abroad,” he said.
Stating that these allegations have caused irreparable damage to his reputation, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said his
lawyers would decide the next course of action after looking into the allegations against him. “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.
Terming the entire situation as distressing, Akbar said, “Lies do not have legs, but they do contain poison, which can be whipped in to a frenzy.” Over the last few days, multiple women have come out with accounts of alleged sexual harassment by Akbar when he was a journalist as the #Metoo movement swept social media, bringing to fore claims of sexual harassment by influential men in different walks of life.
The women who accused Akbar of sexual harassment include Priya Ramani, Ghazala Wahab, Shuma Raha, Anju Bharti and Shutapa Paul. BJP president Amit Shah said the charges against Akbar would be examined, even as he added that the veracity of the allegations levelled against the minister would need to be checked as well.
“It is pertinent to remember that both Ms Ramani and Ms Wahab kept working with me even after these alleged incidents; this establishes that they had no apprehension and discomfort. The reason they remained silent for decades is very apparent: as Ms Ramani has herself stated, ‘he never did anything’,” Akbar said.