#MeToo: MJ Akbar rubbishes Pallavi Gogoi’s claim, says it was consensual

MJ Akbar — ex-Minister of State for External Affairs, who has recently been accused of sexual misconduct and rape by US-based Indian-born journalist, Pallavi Gogoi, rubbished the allegations and called it 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 best note,” MJ Akbar told ANI.

Adding that he said, “People who worked with me and knew both of us have indicated that they would be happy to testify and if the behaviour of Pallavi Gogoi give any one of them impression that she was working under duress.”

Pallavi Gogoi is currently an editor at the National Public Radio, (NPR) has written her ordeal in a column published by The Washington Post.

Recalling the horrific incident, which is said to have taken place when she was 22-year-old, she said that she was ‘star-struck’ when she joined The Asian Age’s Delhi office, she added.

“I was mesmerised by his use of language, his turns of phrase, wishing that I could write like he did. So I took all the verbal abuse. After all, I was learning from the best. Or so I thought,” she wrote.

In 1994, Akbar ‘applauded her efforts and suddenly lunged to kiss’ her. The journalist recalls that she was left ‘red-faced, confused, ashamed, destroyed’ by his act.

After reading allegations of several journalists against MJ Akbar, Gogoi gathered the courage to speak up about her incident.

In just a span of a few months, the second incident took place in Mumbai where she says Akbar ‘came close to me to kiss me’. When she ‘fought him and pushed him away’, Akbar ended up scratching her face.

She alleged that, when she returned to Delhi, Akbar threatened to kick her out of the job if she resists him again. The third incident took place when she was called by Akbar, who was in Jaipur, to ‘discuss a story’ in his hotel room where he eventually assaulted and raped her.

Also read:#MeToo: MJ Akbar raped me in 1994, Journalist writes in Washington Post