MJ Akbar row: 'A lie it is,' MJ Akbar's wife Mallika Akbar opens up on journalist Pallavi Gogoi's rape allegations; here's the full statement
The rape and harassment allegations on the former Union Minister and senior Editor MJ Akbar has seems to have to end. After around 15 women journalists alleged him of sexually assaulting them, now US-based Indian woman journalist Pallavi Gogoi has accused him of raping her 23-year-ago.
The journalist accused former Minister MJ Akbar of ‘raping her and tearing her clothes apart’. However, the Editor-turned-politician has denied all the charges levied against him by the US-based editor of a leading media house.
MJ Akbar's wife Mallika Akbar responded to news agency ANI on journalist Pallavi Gogoi's rape allegations in the Washington Post against her husband. She said, that she has been silent on #MeToo campaign stir against her husband but Pallavi Gogoi's allegations are forcing her to step into the matter. “I don't know Pallavi's reasons for telling this lie, but a lie it is.”
Here's Mallika Akbar's the full statement:
I don't know Pallavi's reasons for telling this lie, but a lie it is: #MJAkbar's wife Mallika Akbar to ANI on journalist Pallavi Gogoi's rape allegations in the Washington Post against her husband pic.twitter.com/SFws1TwWhx
— ANI (@ANI) November 2, 2018
Denying to all the Gogoi's rape and harassment charges, Akbar called the relationship 'consensual'."Somewhere around 1994, Ms Pallavi Gogoi and I entered into a consensual relationship that spanned several months. This 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 journalist-turned-politician told ANI."
The US-based journalist had alleged in a piece published in the Washington Post that, “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?”
First published: 2 November 2018, 16:21 IST