"There was never any occasion where anybody even mentioned anything remotely resembling such allegations, Chaki. Akbar filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani after his name cropped up on social media as the #MeToo campaign raged on in India.Ramani accused Akbar of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago when he was a journalist. Akbar had earlier told the court that the allegations made in the article in Vogue and the subsequent tweets were defamatory on the face of it as the complainant had deposed them to be false and imaginary. He had told the court in his statement that an "immediate damage" has been caused to him due to the scurrilous, concocted and false allegations of sexual misconduct.Multiple women have come out with accounts of alleged sexual harassment by him while he was working as a journalist. Akbar has termed the allegations "false, fabricated and deeply distressing" and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

Source: dna July 18, 2019 03:52 UTC