#MeToo: US-based journalist accuses MJ Akbar of rape

Journalist and Member of parliament MJ Akbar has now been accused of rape by a US-based journalist who has worked with him over 20 years ago. Akbar earlier stepped down as union cabinet minister over several sexual harassment allegations against him. Akbar’s lawyer told Washington Post that the politician has denied the allegations as false by the US-based journalist.

Pallavi Gogoi, who is an editor at the National Public Radio (NPR), wrote in her article on The Washington Post that she joined Asian Age at the age of 22, when Akbar was the Editor-In-Chief.

“Akbar always made sure we were aware of his superior journalistic skills. He marked their copy with his red-ink-filled. 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,” wrote Pallavi.

Pallavi was made the editor of Op-ed page at the age of 23, but she didn’t know that was going to change her life forever.

“My friend Tushita can still recall the moments after the first time Akbar assaulted me. 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. I reeled. I emerged from the office, red-faced, confused, ashamed, destroyed. Tushita still remembers how my face looked that day,” recalled Pallavi.

A few months later, Akbar again assaulted Pallavi in a room of Taj hotel in Mumbai. She resisted him and ran crying, “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."

After getting back to Delhi, Akbar threatened her of firing her if she resisted him again.

“Soon after the Bombay incident, one story took me to a remote village a few hundred miles from Delhi to cover the appalling saga of a young couple who were hanged by members of the village because the lovers were from different castes. The assignment was to end in Jaipur. When I checked back, Akbar said I could come discuss the story in his hotel in Jaipur, far from Delhi.”

Describing the horrific incident, Pallavi wrote, “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?”

Akbar continued to defile her sexually, verbally, emotionally for the next few months.

“I recall the time he worked himself into a rage in the London office because he had seen me talk in a friendly manner to a male colleague. After my colleagues left work that evening, he hit me and went on a rampage, throwing things from the desk at me — a pair of scissors, a paperweight, whatever he could get his hands on. I was in shreds — emotionally, physically, mentally. I knew I had to get out of London.”

Soon, Pallavi left Asian Age to work as a reporting assistant. She worked in overnight shift at Dow Jones in New York.

Over 20 former colleagues of MJ Akbar, mostly journalists have come out with their case of sexual abuse by the journalist. The list includes Priya Ramani Prerna Singh Bindra, Ghazala Wahab, Shutapa Paul, Anju Bharti, Suparna Sharma, Shuma Raha, Malini Bhupta, Kanika Gahlout, Kadambari M Wade, Majlie de Puy Kamp and Ruth David.

Out of them, MJ Akbar has has filed a defamation case against Priya Ramani.