New Delhi: A senior woman journalist alleged in a Delhi court on Tuesday that former Union minister M.J. Akbar sexually harassed her in 1997 while she was working in a newspaper edited by him.
Taking the stand as a defence witness for Priya Ramani in the court of additional chief magistrate Vishal Pahuja, Gazala Wahab gave a detailed account of the sexual and mental harassment that she was subjected to as a young journalist by Akbar at The Asian Age.
Akbar has denied all allegations and filed a criminal defamation case specifically against senior journalist Priya Ramani.
He has alleged that her tweet alleging sexual harassment by him tarnished his reputation. He has also submitted that Ramani’s tweet led to several women coming forward with their accounts of sexual harassment by him.
Wahab told the court that she had tweeted about Akbar in the context of sexual harassment and the #MeToo campaign before Ramani’s tweet.
Recounting incidents of 1997, when she had joined The Asian Age, Wahab said, “My desk was right outside Akbar’s office in a manner that if his door was slightly open he could watch me. Many a times I saw him watching me. If there was a visitor, the door was closed and when he was alone the door would be open. Later he started sending me private messages on Asian Age’s internal messaging service about my clothes and appearances.”
Wahab further told the court, “Sometime in August 1997, in the afternoon, Akbar called me to his room. As I went in, he asked me to shut the door. Then he asked me to look up a word in the dictionary which was placed on a low three-legged stool across his desk. It was placed so low that one had to bend down. When I bent down, he came from behind and grabbed my waist. He ran his hands from my breasts to my hips. I tried to push his hands away but they were firmly planted on my waist. He then pushed his thumb on my breast. Not only was the door shut, even his back was towards the door.”
However, this was not the only incident. Ghazala recounted the incident that took place the next day. “The next evening, he called me in his cabin. I knocked and entered. He was standing next to the door and before I could react, he shut the door, trapping me between his body and the door. I instinctively flinched, but he held me and bent to kiss me. With my mouth clamped shut, I struggled to turn my face to one side. The jostling continued, without much success. I had no space to manoeuvre. Fear had rendered me speechless. As my body was pushing against the door, at some point he let me go. Tear-stricken, I ran out. I was numbed with fear and shock,” she said.
The woman scribe further told the court that when she narrated the incident to Seema Mustafa, who was the bureau chief then, “She (Mustafa) said she was not surprised about his behaviour and she was unable to help me and it was entirely my fault and I had to decide what to do.” In November 1997, Wahab said, Akbar sent Veenu Sandal, a tarrot card reader, “who told me that he was in love with me and I should stop resisting him.”
Ramani’s lawyers told that Wahab’s deposition demolished Akbar’s claim that he had an “impeccable reputation.” The court will further hear the matter on Wednesday, when Wahab is likely to be cross examined by Akbar’s lawyers.
