New Delhi, October 17: Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar resigned from his post on Wednesday, days after he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women in the #MeToo movement. Akbar issued a statement through news agency ANI wherein he vowed to challegnge 'false allegations' against him. "Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity," Akbar said in the statement.

"I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of Minister of State for External Affairs. I am deeply grateful to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and to the External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country," Akbar stated further. The Rajya Sabha MP on Sunday termed the allegations "wild and baseless" questioning their timing and vowed to take legal action against the accusers.

"Accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections. Whatever be the case, now that I have returned (from abroad), my lawyers will look into these wild and baseless allegations in order to decide our future course of legal action," he said. A day after, Akbar filed a defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani for accusing him of sexual harassment.

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

Reacting to Ramani's allegations, Akbar said she was running a campaign to damage his reputation. “Ms Priya Ramani began this campaign a year ago with a magazine article. She did not, however, name me as she knew it was an incorrect story. When asked recently why she had not named me, she replied, in a Tweet: Never named him because he didn’t ‘do’ anything.," Akbar said on Sunday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 17, 2018 04:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).