A Delhi court on Tuesday issued summons to journalist Priya Ramani as an accused in a defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar for levelling allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
She has to appear before the court on 25 February.
Reacting to the news, Ramani tweeted:
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal had reserved the order after concluding the arguments from Akbar’s lawyer, who contended that “prima facie” a case was made out against Ramani.
Senior advocate Geeta Luthra, appearing for Akbar, had said that “because of these articles and tweets (by Ramani), a number of people formed opinion about me (Akbar) which defamed my reputation.”
Akbar, who resigned as Union minister on 17 October last year, filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani after his name cropped up on social media when he was in Nigeria as the #MeToo campaign raged on in India.
She had accused Akbar of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago, which was denied by him.
Multiple women have come out with accounts of alleged sexual harassment by him while he was working as a journalist.
He had termed the allegations “false, fabricated and deeply distressing” and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.
(With PTI inputs)