MJ Akbar vs Priya Ramani: Delhi Court concludes cross-examination of witnesses in defamation case

The Court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal today concluded the examination-in-chief and cross-examination of MJ Akbar ‘s witnesses in his defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani..Akbar had filed a defamation case against Ramani after she accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct in a series of tweets published in October 2018..The Court today recorded the examination-in-chief and cross-examination of two witnesses, Joyeeta Basu and Manzar Ali..Joyeeta Basu who has been a journalist for over 20 years and is currently, the Editor of The Sunday Guardian, deposed that she has high regard for Akbar. She stated that Akbar was a strict professional and taught her everything that she knew “about newspaper and magazine journalism.”.“He has been a perfect gentleman to me. In office, he was a complete professional and a tough taskmaster with everyone. He was held in high esteem in office. He was held in high esteem in the eyes of the world. He has an impeccable reputation as a brilliant writer, a journalist and public figure.“, she added..Therefore, after reading Ramani’s “scandalous tweets” she was embarrassed and Akbar’s reputation and image was lowered in her eyes..“There was a lot of talk in my circle of acquaintances, all of which aggravated the situation..But then I reasoned with myself. Considering my experience of working with Mr Akbar for almost 15 years, I overcame my doubts and decided that I had to speak out. So I tweeted in support of Mr Akbar..”, she stated..In her cross-examination conducted by Senior Advocate Rebecca John, Basu acknowledged that she considered her relationship with Akbar as that of “Guru & Shishya” and that she considered Akbar to be her Guru..She also deposed that after she tweeted in support of Akbar at the time when the allegations against him had surfaced, Akbar thanked her through SMS..On being asked if Akbar contacted her and asked her if could be a witness, she said,.“Yes. I had suggested to Mr Akbar that he should take legal action and that I was ready to support him..”.She accepted that she had never worked with Priya Ramani or Ghazala Wahab..Basu further acknowledged that she had no personal knowledge regarding the incidents alleged by Ramani or Wahab..The Personal Assistant of MJ Akbar, Manzar Ali was also cross-examined with respect to his claim that he had taken out print outs of the allegedly defamatory content published by Priya Ramani..In his cross-examination conducted by Advocate Bhavook Chauhan, Ali stated,.“I had signed the certificate (under Sec 65B Evidence Act) after reading and understanding its content. I prepared the certificate myself. I am familiar with drafting on a computer and surfing on the internet. The operating system was a desktop with Windows installed in it. I do not understand the internet browser. I use Google Chrome to open websites on the internet. I do not know about private browsing on Google Chrome.”.Ali further stated that he took the print out of the tweets and other links on being asked by Akbar but was not aware if the printout of the tweets was taken in private browsing mode in Google Chrome..After Chauhan pointed out that the date mentioned in the print outs taken out by him showed the date of the tweet as October 13, 2018, i.e. a day before the tweets were made by Ramani, Ali was asked if the print outs were taken on Google’s incognito mode, thus showing the Pacific Time..Ali answered,.“I don’t know the difference between Indian Standard Time and Pacific Time. I cannot say if the time and date mentioned on the tweet are as per Pacific Time and not Indian Standard Time. I cannot say if as per IST, the tweet was published on Oct 14.“.With these set of questions, the examination-in-chief and cross-examination of MJ Akbar’s witnesses were concluded..The cross-examination of other witnesses- Veenu Sandal , Tapan Chaki, Sunil Gujral was conducted last month..MJ Akbar has also cross-examined by the defence. Read an account of the first round of cross-examination on May 4 here and the second round on May 20 here. Read the final round of his cross-examination here..Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra and Advocate Sandeep Kapur (Senior Partner, Karanjawala & Co) are appearing for MJ Akbar..The matter would be taken up next on August 23.