Akbar, 67, had to resign from junior foreign minister post following a spate of sexual misconduct allegations slapped against him my multiple women. (File Photo/PTI)
A day after former minister MJ Akbar dismissed rape charges levelled against him by a US-based Indian journalist by suggesting that whatever happened was 'consensual', the woman scribe responded on Saturday, saying a relationship based on 'coercion and abuse of power' is not consensual.
In a Twitter post, the journalist said that she stands by every word in her article published in The Washington Post.
"Yesterday, The Washington Post published my first-hand account of being physically, verbally and sexually assaulted by MJ Akbar. I was in my early 20s, an aspiring journalist, and an employee at the newspaper he led," she said.
"Akbar has insisted — just like other infamous serial sexual abusers 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. 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," the woman journalist said in her statement.
The statement issued by US-based Indian journalist who has accused MJ Akbar of rape. (Photo/Twitter)
On Friday, Akbar's wife Mallika had defended him over rape allegations while describing them as 'lie'.
Akbar, 67, had to resign from junior foreign minister post following a spate of sexual misconduct allegations slapped against him my multiple women under the ongoing MeToo movement.
