New Delhi: A Delhi court acquitted journalist Priya Ramani in a criminal defamation case. MJ Akbar had filed a lawsuit against Ramani on allegations of sexual harassment.
The court acquitted journalist Priya Ramani of all charges, refusing to hold him guilty in the criminal defamation case. Priya Ramani accused former Union Minister MJ Akbar of sexual exploitation during the #MeToo campaign in 2018. Ramani had made sexual harassment allegations against Akbar, about which he (Akbar) filed this complaint against her on 15 October 2018.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar reserved his verdict for February 10 after the arguments of Akbar and Ramani’s lawyers were completed. However, the court deferred the verdict on 10 February for 17 February, stating that since both the parties have submitted their written arguments with delay, the decision has not been fully written.
Priya Ramani was the first woman to accuse MJ Akbar of sexual harassment in an article in 2017 and a tweet in 2018, alleging that he had sexually harassed her during a job interview in 1994. Over 20 women then accused Akbar of sexual harassment during the time they had worked with him as journalists.
After that, Akbar filed a complaint against Ramani on October 15, 2018, for defamation caused by the allegations. He was forced to resign as Union minister on October 17, 2018, even as he denied all the allegations of sexual harassment against the women who came forward during the #MeToo campaign against him.
Akbar’s lawyers, last month, had contended that Ramani “deliberately, intentionally, maliciously” destroyed evidence by deleting the Twitter account and there was not an iota of truth in her story.
The court, while acquitting Priya Ramani on Wednesday, stated in its order that a woman has the right to submit her complaint even after years since the incident occurred. The court commented that a person who has a good social standing can also turn out to be a sexual harasser.
“Sexual abuse takes away dignity and self-confidence. Right of reputation can’t be protected at the cost of the right to dignity,” it added.
