Illustration by Nithya Subramanian
It took nearly two years and more than 50 hearings for a district court in Delhi to acquit journalist Priya Ramani in a defamation case filed by former Union Minister MJ Akbar.
The trigger for the defamation case came amidst the #MeToo campaign in 2018 where scores of women took to social media to speak up about incidents of sexual harassment. Several who had previously been inhibited by fear made allegations about prominent men in the field of journalism, advertising, arts, music and sports.
On Twitter, Ramani accused Akbar of harassment in an incident that had taken place in a hotel room in 1993, when she was a young reporter and he was an established newspaper editor. After that, 20 women accused Akbar of grave sexual misconduct during his years as editor.