What did the women say?

On Friday, US-based journalist Majlie de Puy Kamp told online news portal HuffPost

India that former editor and now junior Indian foreign minister MJ Akbar forcibly kissed her on the last day of her internship at The Asian Age office in 2007.

Last week, FORCE magazine executive editor Ghazala Wahab, in an article on a news portal, wrote an account of her “harrowing experience” with Akbar. Former Mint Lounge editor Priya Ramani,

who wrote about a predatory “celebrity editor” without naming anyone in a piece last year, on Monday publicly identified Akbar as the central character of her piece. “I began this piece with my M.J. Akbar story. Never named him because he didn’t ‘do’ anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator -- maybe they’ll share,” she said. Journalist Shutapa Paul recalled in a series of tweets that as the India Today editor, whenever Akbar came to Kolkata, he would invite her to his hotel, usually after 8 pm. He would then drink alcohol and ask her to also do so. Other women journalists who have levelled allegations against Akbar include Prerna Singh Bindra, Sujata Anandan, Shuma Raha, Harinder Baweja and Anju Bharti.