#MeToo: Delhi court likely to deliver verdict on MJ Akbar’s defamation case against Priya Ramani today

MJ Akbar had filed the suit against Ramani on October 15, 2018, for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of sexual misconduct decades ago when he was a journalist.

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce its judgment on the criminal defamation case filed against journalist Priya Ramani by former union minister MJ Akbar.

The editor-turned-politician had filed the suit against Ramani on October 15, 2018, for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of sexual misconduct decades ago when he was a journalist. With several other women making similar allegations against him, Akbar resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs in 2018.

On February 1, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar had reserved the judgment after Akbar as well as Ramani completed their arguments. The court had earlier deferred pronouncing the verdict on February 10.

Ramani, the first woman to accuse MJ Akbar of sexual harassment during the #MeToo campaign, in an article in 2017 and a tweet in 2018, had alleged that the former Minister of State for External Affairs had sexually harassed her during a job interview in 1994.

Over 20 women accused Akbar of sexual harassment during the time they had worked with him as journalists. He has, however, termed the allegations “false, fabricated and deeply distressing” while stressing that he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

Akbar, last month, had told a Delhi court through his lawyers that Ramani “deliberately, intentionally, maliciously” destroyed evidence by deleting the Twitter account.

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