#MeToo: Patiala House Courts lists hearing of MJ Akbar's defamation case against Priya Ramani to October 18

The Patiala House Courts on Tuesday listed the hearing of Union Minister MJ Akbar's defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani to October 18. Akbar, who was accused of sexual harassment amid the raging #MeToo campaign against male predators, had on Monday filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani.

Ramani recently accused the minister of state for external affairs of sexual misconduct as the #MeToo campaign took India by storm.

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Reacting to the accusations and allegations against him, Akbar had issued a statement on Sunday and said that he would take legal action against the accusers.

Taking Ramani to court, the former editor of a newspaper accused her of “wilfully, deliberately, intentionally and malaciously” defaming him and has sought her prosecution under the penal provision on defamation.

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“Ms Priya Ramani began this campaign a year ago with a magazine article. She did not, however, name me as she knew it was an incorrect story. When asked recently why she had not named me, she replied, in a tweet: “Never named him because he didn’t ‘do’ anything.”

“If I didn’t do anything, where and what is the story? There is no story. This was admitted at the very inception. But a sea of innuendo, speculation and abusive diatribe has been built around something that never happened. Some are total, unsubstantiated hearsay; others confirm, on the record, that I didn’t do anything...,” Akbar had said in the statement he issued on Sunday.