Journalist hits back at MJ Akbar after he claims rape allegations as `consensual`

Hours after former editor-turned-politician MJ Akbar refuted a journalist's allegations of rape and claimed that they were “consensual", the journalist hit back at him saying that a relationship based on "coercion, and abuse of power is not consensual".

Taking to social media platform, Twitter, the US-based journalist of Indian origin said, "Rather than taking responsibility for his abuse of me and his serial predation of other young women who have courageously come forward, Akbar has insisted -- just like other infamous serial sexual abuser of women -- that the relationship was consensual. It was not. A relationship that is based on coercion, and abuse of power, is not consensual. I stand by every word in my published account."

She added that she will continue to speak her truth. The journalist added, "I will continue to speak my truth so that other women who have been sexually assaulted by him know it is okay for them to come forward and speak their truth too."

Earlier on Friday, the journalist recently wrote in a blog piece on Washington Post that she had been raped by Akbar more than two decades ago when he was the Editor-in-Chief at Asian Age. Akbar's lawyer has reportedly dismissed the accusation as 'false'.

Akbar's wife Mallika has also come out in his defence. “I don't know her reasons for telling this lie, but a lie it is,” she said. Mallika added that the woman had reportedly “caused unhappiness and discord in our home.” “I learned of her and my husband’s involvement through her calls and her public display of affection in my presence. In her flaunting the relationship, she caused anguish and hurt to my entire family,” she added.

Akbar said that the “relationship gave rise to talk and would later cause strife in my home life as well.” “This consensual relationship ended, perhaps not on the best note.”

The former minister resigned from the Union Council of Ministers on October 17 after his name cropped up on the social media in the #MeToo campaign. Multiple women accused him of alleged sexual harassment when he was the editor. Akbar had termed the allegations "false, fabricated and deeply distressing".

In her opinion piece for the American news outlet, she wrote that the recent accusations levelled against Akbar by other women 'made my head spin.' She further wrote that she was 22 when she began working for the Asian Age in a newsroom where a majority of the employees were women.

"Working in New Delhi under Akbar, we were star-struck. He was famous, an author of two well-regarded political books and a leading editor. Akbar, who was in his 40s, always made sure we were aware of his superior journalistic skills. He marked our copy with his red-ink-filled Mont Blanc pen, crumpled our printouts and often threw them in the garbage bin, as we shuddered. There was never a day when he didn’t shout at one of us at the top of his voice. We rarely measured up to his standards."

She then states that Akbar had even threatened to sack her if she resisted him again.

The third incident, according to her, is when Akbar raped her. Recounting that she had gone to Jaipur for a news report, she writes she was called to Akbar's hotel room to discuss work. "In his hotel room, even though I fought him, he was physically more powerful. He ripped off my clothes and raped me. Instead of reporting him to the police, I was filled with shame. I didn’t tell anyone about this then. Would anyone have believed me? I blamed myself. Why did I go to the hotel room?"

The woman remembers that the incidents took a massive toll on her. "I was in shreds — emotionally, physically, mentally," she writes about a certain incident in London when Akbar had allegedly hit her and hurled office stationaries towards her. It is after this that, she writes, she quit the job and re-started her career in the US.

While she reflects back on the time spent in the Asian Age with horror, she writes that she is now a US citizen who has re-discovered her love for journalism. 

The woman's re-telling of what reportedly happened with her is likely to come as yet another blow to Akbar who is already facing allegations of harassment from several women who were his juniors at Asian Age. Akbar - who resigned as minister of state for external affairs - has maintained he is innocent and is confident the truth will come to the fore. According to Washington Post, his lawyer has expressly denied charges made against Akbar by the woman.