MJ Akbar defamation case: Court issues summons to Priya Ramani

A combination picture of Union Minister M.J. Akbar and journalist Priya Ramani A combination picture of Union Minister M.J. Akbar and journalist Priya Ramani

The Delhi Patiala House Court on Tuesday issued summons to Priya Ramani as an accused in the defamation case filed by former Union minister and #MeToo accused M.J. Akbar.

The court has asked Ramani to appear before it on the next date of hearing on February 25. On January 22, the court had reserved its order whether to summon Ramani as an accused.

Akbar was forced to resign as Union minister on October 17 last year after multiple women journalists accused him of sexual harassment as part of the #MeToo wave in India.

Ramani accused Akbar of sexual misconduct, which occurred around 20 years ago. Akbar denied the allegation. Akbar then filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani. The court had on January 11 recorded the statements of three more witnesses in support of the case filed by Akbar.

The three witnesses—Tapan Chaki, Manjar Ali and Rachna Grover—who were associated with Akbar deposed before the court, saying they were extremely "distressed and dismayed" as grave damage has been caused to his reputation due to the allegations.

The first direct allegation against Akbar was made by journalist Priya Ramani, who tweeted on October 8 about an article she wrote on the #MeToo movement for Vogue in October 2017. Ramani revealed that the article was about Akbar, tweeting, “I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didn’t “do” anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator—maybe they’ll share.”

The article describes how an unnamed editor tried to misbehave with Ramani during a job interview in his room at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai when she was just 23 and he was 43. In the article, Ramani claims the editor wanted her to sit close to him in the hotel room; she also accuses him of sending obscene messages to women staff.