#MeToo:"Time to tell our side of the story”, says Priya Ramani after court summons in M J Akbar case
New Delhi, Jan 29: "Time to tell our side of the story", was the expression of journalist Priya Ramani, who was Tuesday summoned as an accused by a Delhi court for allegedly defaming former Union minister M J Akbar by levelling allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
Ramani, who accused Akbar of sexual misconduct 20 years ago when he was a journalist, took to Twitter to react after the court summoned her for February 25.
She was the first among 20-odd female journalists who accused Akbar of sexual misconduct as the #MeToo campaign raged on in India.
The women claimed to have worked with Akbar in 1990s and included Ghazala Wahab, Shuma Raha, Anju Bharti and Shutapa Paul.
In its order, the court said the allegations made by Ramani against Akbar were "prima facie defamatory" and he had denied all the accusations as "false and imaginary".
It also said that "at this stage, the court only has the version of the complainant, who has on oath deposed in court that all the allegations made are false and further brought witnesses to vouch for his impeccable and unblemished reputation".
Akbar, who resigned as Union Minister on October 17, last year had filed a private criminal defamation complaint against Ramani after his name cropped up on social media when he was in Nigeria, claiming that all the allegations against him were false.
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Congress names candidates for 8 Haryana LS seats, fields Kumari Selja, Deepender Hooda
Chandigarh (PTI): The Congress on Thursday announced candidates for eight of the nine Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Haryana, fielding former Union minister Kumari Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda and youth leader Divyanshu Budhiraja, besides two sitting MLAs.
The party has also fielded former MP Jai Prakash and leaders Satpal Brahmachari and Mahendra Pratap, according to the list released late Thursday evening.
The Congress is contesting nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. It has not yet announced its candidate for the Gurugram constituency.
The Aam Aadmi Party, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, will contest the Kurukshetra seat.
Congress general secretary and former Union minister Selja will contest from the Sirsa (reserved) seat and sitting MLAs Varun Choudhary and Rao Dan Singh from the Ambala (reserved) and the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
Deepender Hooda, son of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will enter the fray from Rohtak. He has represented the Rohtak parliamentary constituency three times in the past.
Jai Prakash has been fielded from Hisar, the Congress' Haryana youth wing president Divanshu Budhiraja from Karnal, Satpal Brahmachari from Sonipat and Mahendra Pratap from Faridabad.
