Charges against MJ Akbar to be examined: Amit Shah

New Delhi, Oct 13: In the wake of #Me Too allegations against MJ Akbar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has said the numerous charges of sexual harassment against union minister will be probed.

"We will definitely look into the issue. We have to see whether these allegations are true or false. We haven't heard anything from his side, so it is really difficult to comment anything on that at the moment," he said.

Shah, however, added that "People can put anything against anyone on any website, so we have to probe the charges and see whether it is true or not and whether this incident ever happened or not. Even you can say anything against me on a website, so we'll evaluate and then we will decide our next step," he said according to a Times of India report.

The party chief's reaction came a few days after MJ Akbar's name was brought up by two journalists in the #MeToo campaign following which the government faced flak from opposition parties and demanded the junior External Affairs Minister's removal.

Earlier, Maneka Gandhi indirectly said that they wanted a probe into those allegations against Akbar. But Shah directly commented on the issue indicating that his party is taking the issue seriously.

The BJP women leaders Uma Bharti, Meenakshi Lekhi also supported the movement and called on women to speak up on the issue.

The recent allegations on MJ Akbar have also become problematic for his continuation as the junior foreign minister. The pressure on the government seems to have increased as another case of sexual harassment against Akbar surfaced on Friday. This time, from a US journalist while she was an intern at The Asian Age way back in the year 2007.