A Delhi court was supposed to hear closing arguments in the MJ Akbar-Priya Ramani defamation case on Friday, 24 January.
However, both the parties were informed on Friday morning that the Judge was on leave. The case will now be heard on 7 February.
Senior journalist Priya Ramani is fighting a criminal defamation case filed by former Union Minister MJ Akbar before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja in the Rouse Avenue trial court.
MJ Akbar was accused by several women of sexual harassment, assault, and even rape (by one woman), in the wake of the #MeToo movement in October 2018.
He, in turn, filed a defamation case against Priya Ramani, who had revealed in a tweet at the time that the beginning of an article she’d written the previous year was her #MeToo story about Akbar.
In the previous hearing, Akbar’s lawyer cross-examined Ghazala Wahab who had earlier testified in court against Akbar.
His lawyer suggested Wahab's assertions in her statement were false, that she was aware of the provision for sexual harassment and that no such incident ever happened to her, as Wahab denied his suggestions.
Wahab had earlier testified that Akbar had forcibly tried to kiss her while she was a young journalist at The Asian Age newspaper.
Wahab further alleged that the very next day, Akbar messaged her on the intranet and asked her to come in again.
The judge also asked the media to refrain from ‘making personal comments on the counsels’.
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