MJ AKBAR-RAMANI DEFAMATION CASE: FINAL HEARING BEGINS

NEWDELHI: Former Union minister M J Akbar told a Delhi court Friday that journalist Priya Ramani’s accusations of sexual misconduct against him in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018 were “figment of her imagination” and caused him “great humiliation” and “irreparably damaged his reputation”.

Akbar made the allegations before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja through his lawyer during the final hearing of a private criminal defamation complaint filed by him against Ramani after his name cropped up on social media as the #MeToo campaign raged.

Senior advocate Geeta Luthra, appearing for Akbar, said that if there was any grievance, it had to be raised then and there before the appropriate authority.

“Allegations are a figment of her (Ramani’s) imagination. Things that I (Akbar) took 49-45 years to build, without any sense of responsibility, were trashed,” Luthra said.

Ramani had earlier told the court that her “disclosure” of alleged sexual harassment by Akbar has come at “a great personal cost” and she had “nothing to gain” from it.