US-Based Journalist Says Akbar Raped Her 23 Yrs
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PUNJAB PNB posts Rs Amritsar train tragedy: 4,532 cr net loss Sidhu fails to appear in Sept qtr on before inquiry commission 02 www.dailyworld.in fraud-related provisioning 11 INTERNATIONAL Birthright SPORTS citizenship Rohit-led Indian has created team arrives birth tourism: in Kolkata for Trump 10 T20 series 12 4.00 • CHANDIGARH • SATURDAY•3 NOV 2018 • VOLUME 3 • ISSUE 204 SC quashes FIR dailypick US-based journalist says Akbar against Anurag NORTH Thakur, Dhumal ‘PM will not survive raped her 23 yrs ago and others 05 NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Friday Rafale probe’ quashed an FIR against BJP MP Anurag Thakur, former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem M SHAFEEQ He says it was ‘consensual relationship’ Kumar Dhumal and others in a case related to alleged irregularities in granting land on lease Changing political WASHINGTON/New DELHI Pallavi While she was in Rajasthan on an for construction of the Dharamshala cricket Gogoi, a US-based editor, has accused assignment, Akbar said she could stadium. A bench of justices A K Sikri, Ashok dynamics compelled M J Akbar of raping her while work- come to discuss the story in his hotel Bhushan and Ajay Rastogi said, “We allow the Naidu to embrace ing under the “brilliant journalist” in Jaipur, she claimed. appeal. The FIR registered is quashed.” Thakur, in India, an allegation denied by the “In his hotel room, even though I Dhumal and Himachal Pradesh Cricket Asso- 06 enemy former Union minister who claimed fought him, he was physically more ciation (HPCA) had challenged the Himachal that he had a “consensual relation- powerful. He ripped off my clothes Pradesh High Court order refusing to quash ship” spanning several months with and raped me,” she alleged, adding the FIR registered during the then Virbhadra her but it ended “perhaps not on the that instead of reporting him to the Singh government in the state. The high court Devi Lal’s great- best note”.Akbar, 67, who recently police, she was filled with shame. on April 25, 2014, had refused to quash the FIR grandsons, including resigned as junior foreign minister Gogoi claimed Akbar’s grip over and stay the criminal trial pending before special after multiple women came out with her got tighter. For a few months, judge, Dharamshala, in a case registered for MP Dushyant, expelled accounts of alleged sexual harass- he continued to defile her sexually, cheating and criminal conspiracy, and under ment, has filed a criminal defamation verbally, emotionally... “I died a little provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. from INLD case against one of them amid the every day,” she said. Thakur, who is a BJP MP from Hamirpur and DW BUREAU / CHANDIGARH raging #MeToo campaign in India. Akbar said he would send her ei- was then the HPCA president, had contended “Somewhere around 1994, Ms ther to the US or the UK as a reward in the apex court that the case was actually a THE main Opposition Indian National Lok Dal Pallavi Gogoi and I entered into a for excellent work on covering the civil dispute but the then Virbhadra Singh-led (INLD), while taking strong action on recent consensual relationship that spanned 1994 polls, she recalled. Congress government had made it a criminal developments within the party, on Friday several months,” Akbar said in a state- “I thought that finally, the abuse case for political reasons. PAGE 5 > expelled Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala and his ment in New Delhi after her article would stop... Except the truth was younger brother Digvijay Chautala. appeared in The Washington Post. that he was sending me away so I Both are great-grandsons of former Deputy In a separate statement, his wife could have no defences and he could Prime Minister Devi Lal. Both have been expelled Mallika Akbar also dismissed Gogoi’s prey on me whenever he visited the from the primary membership of the party with accusations as a “lie”. city,” she said. Gogoi alleged that RSS says will immediate effect, a party statement said here. Gogoi, the chief business editor Akbar once worked himself into a The expulsion was announced by former of National Public Radio (NPR), a rage in the London office after he launch agitation, Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, Washington-based American media saw her talking to a male colleague. who is the National President of the INLD and organisation, has detailed the “most He hit her and went on a rampage, if needed, for Ram grandfather of both youth leaders. painful memories” of her life in the throwing things from the desk at Dushyant Chautala has also been removed Post article. was a big responsibility at a young her — a pair of scissors or whatever temple in Ayodhya from the post of leader of the INLD Parliamen- She said that Akbar, the editor-in- age, she said. “But I would soon pay a “Akbar’s grip over he could get his hands on. She ran UTTAN (Maha) The Rashtriya Swayamsevak tary Board. The action follows recent activities chief of the Asian Age newspaper at very big price for doing a job I loved. away and hid in Hyde Park. Sangh(RSS) said on Friday it will not hesitate of both youth leaders and their supporters who that time, was a “brilliant journalist “It must have been late spring or her got tighter. “I was in shreds — emotionally, to launch an agitation for Ram temple at Ayod- were trying to project Dushyant as a Chief Min- but used his position to prey” on her. summer of 1994, and I had gone into For a few months, physically, mentally,” she said. hya, if needed, a remark that came amidst a isterial face in Assembly elections in Haryana “What I am about to share are his office — his door was often closed. Akbar summoned her back to growing clamour for a law to clear the way for to be held around October next year. the most painful memories of my I went to show him the op-ed page he continued Mumbai after which she left the job. its construction at the disputed site in Uttar “Both Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Singh life. I have shelved them away for 23 I had created... He applauded my to defile her Responding to Gogoi’s allega- Pradesh. RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi had been accused of indiscipline, hooliganism years,” she said, detailing how Akbar effort and suddenly lunged to kiss tions, Akbar said several people while outlining the organisation’s stand on the and spreading disaffection within the party physically and mentally harassed her me. I reeled. I emerged from the of- sexually, verbally, who worked with him knew about Ram temple issue at a news conference also said against the party leadership during the birthday for years while working at the Asian fice, red-faced, confused, ashamed, emotionally... “I died his relationship with her and at no Hindus were feeling “insulted” by the Supreme celebrations of Chaudhary Devi Lal in Gohana Age newspaper from New Delhi to destroyed,” she alleged. a little every day.” stage did her behaviour give any one Court’s declaration that it had priorities other on October 7,” the INLD statement said. “He Mumbai to Jaipur to London. The second incident was a few of them the impression that she was than the Ayodhya issue, as he insisted for an (Om Prakash Chautala) conveyed to the party Gogoi said she was 22 when she months later when she was sum- “working under, or in any way, under ordinance if all options run out. office that he did not need any outside evidence joined the Asian Age. She was star- moned to Mumbai to help launch a him away. He scratched my face as I duress”. “This relationship (with “We will not hesitate to launch an agitation since he was a witness to the indiscipline and struck working under Akbar. She was magazine, she claimed. ran away, tears streaming down,” she Gogoi) gave rise to talk and would for Ram temple, if needed, but since the matter unruly scenes that also continuously inter- mesmerised by his use of language, “He called me to his room at the wrote. When she got back to Delhi, later cause significant strife in my is in the Supreme Court, there are restrictions,” rupted his speech on that day but still he had his turns of phrase and took all the fancy Taj hotel, again to see the lay- Akbar threatened to kick her out of home life as well. This consensual Joshi said when asked by a newsman whether referred the matter to the Disciplinary Action verbal abuse. At 23, Gogoi became outs. When he again came close to me the job if she resisted him again. But relationship ended, perhaps not on the Sangh will launch an agitation for Ram Committee of the party. the editor of the op-ed page which to kiss me, I fought him and pushed she didn’t quit the paper, she said. the best note. / PTI / temple construction like in the 1990s. PAGE 5 > dailyheadlines Madras HC quashes I-T dept’s criminal prosecution against PC 07 New details highlight Lion Air jet’s problems before crash 08 09 Moscow ready to maintain strategic stability with US: Lavrov 10 Trump says Nauert ‘under very serious consideration’ for UN envoy NEW DELHI The Supreme Court not inclined to entertain the present SIX MONTHS OF Bofors case: on Friday dismissed the CBI appeal Special Leave Petitions,” the bench, MARRIAGE, LALU'S against the Delhi High Court’s 2005 also comprising Justices K M Joseph SON TEJ PRATAP verdict discharging all the accused, and Hemant Gupta, said.