New Delhi: Sexual harassment allegations against former state minister in BJP Government and veteran journalist MJ Akbar continue to unearth and this time another Indian-American journalist and former employee of Asian Age Newspaper has come forward to share her experience at work with him.
The journalist leveled allegations against Akbar for sexually, verbally and emotionally abusing her in her post published in Washington post.
The journalist’s post read: “It must have been late spring or summer of 1994, and I had gone into his office — his door was often closed. I went to show him the op-ed page I had created with what I thought were clever headlines. He applauded my effort and suddenly lunged to kiss me”.
Recalling her horrid experiences, she said, the second incident was a few months later, when I was summoned to Bombay to help launch a magazine. He called me to his room at the fancy Taj hotel, again to see the layouts. When he again came close to me to kiss me, I fought him and pushed him away. He scratched my face as I ran away, tears streaming down.
Her third frightening encounter with Akbar was at a Jaipur hotel, where she recalls she had gone to cover the killing of a young couple.
” In his hotel room, even though I fought him, he was physically more powerful. He ripped off my clothes and raped me,” she said, India TV reports.
When Washington Post contacted Akbar’s lawyer Sandeep Kapur for comments on the journalist, he replied: ” My client states that these [incidents and allegations] are false and expressly denied”.