BJP’s Shah says allegations against Minister Akbar need to be verified

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah has said that he was not in a position to comment on M.J. Akbar, who is facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, as the claims against the Union Minister needed to be "looked into".

"It's difficult to comment on something that comes on a website. One can put anything on a website. So, this needs to be checked. If that is true or false, whether such an incident happened or not," Shah said in an interview ETV late Friday.

"It will have to be seen if it is the same person who is levelling allegations or someone else has put it up (on social media). All these things will have to be seen. And once we do it, we will certainly think over it (the action against Akbar)," he added.

More than half a dozen women journalists have accused Akbar of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour at various stages of his journalistic career, during which he launched and edited several newspapers.

Akbar, the Minister of State for External Affairs, is currently on an official tour abroad. He is yet to make a statement on the allegations against him.

On Friday, US-based journalist Majlie de Puy Kamp told online news portal HuffPost India that Akbar forcibly kissed her on the last day of her internship at The Asian Age office in 2007.

Earlier this week, FORCE magazine Executive Editor Ghazala Wahab, in an article on a news portal, wrote an account of her "harrowing experience" with Akbar.

Former Mint Lounge Editor Priya Ramani, who wrote about a predatory "celebrity editor" without naming anyone in a piece last year, on Monday publicly identified Akbar as the central character of her piece.

"I began this piece with my M.J. Akbar story. Never named him because he didn't 'do' anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator -- maybe they'll share," she said.

Journalist Shutapa Paul recalled in a series of tweets on Wednesday that as the India Today editor, whenever Akbar came to Kolkata, he would invite her to his hotel, usually after 8 p.m. He would then drink alcohol and ask her to also do so.

Other female journalists who have levelled allegations against Akbar include Prerna Singh Bindra, Sujata Anandan, Shuma Raha, Harinder Baweja and Anju Bharti.