New Delhi: NPR business editor Pallavi Gogoi, who accused former minister M.J. Akbar of raping her in 1994, has responded to his denial by saying that she stands by “every word” in her original account, published by the Washington Post.
Akbar had said on Friday and him and Gogoi were in a consensual relationship – an extra-marital affair for him – which ended “not on the best note”.
In response, Gogoi has said,
Yesterday, the Washington Post published my first hand account of being physically, verbally and sexually assaulted by M.J. Akbar. I was in my early 20s, an aspiring journalist, and an employee at the newspaper he led. Rather than take responsibility for his abuse of me and his serial predation of other young women who have courageously come forward, Akbar has insisted – just like other 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 may have been sexually assaulted by him know it is okay for them to come forward and speak their truth too.
Akbar had claimed that several people who worked with him and knew Gogoi were willing to “bear testimony” that the relationship was consensual and that Gogoi’s behaviour did not indicate that she was working under duress.
Akbar’s wife Mallika Akbar also released a statement saying the relationship between Gogoi and her husband created “unhappiness and discord” in their home. “In her flaunting the relationship, she caused anguish and hurt to my entire family,” she said. She claimed to have confronted her husband, who chose to end the relationship and focus on his family.
In her original account, Gogoi wrote that she became the Asian Age‘s op-ed editor when she was 23 years old and was assaulted by Akbar soon after. “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,” she wrote.
Later, Akbar raped her for the first time in a Jaipur hotel room, Gogoi said. “Would anyone have believed me? I blamed myself. Why did I go to the hotel room? What was worse was that after that first time, his grip over me got tighter. I stopped fighting his advances because I felt so helpless. He continued to coerce me. For a few months, he continued to defile me sexually, verbally, emotionally. He would burst into loud rages in the newsroom if he saw me talking to male colleagues my own age. It was frightening.”
In the last month, Akbar has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by at least 17 women journalists. He stepped down from his ministerial post after the allegations, and has denied all the claims. He has sued Priya Ramani, the first woman who spoke out against him, for defamation.