Now, Vinod Dua under '#MeToo' lens

The raging 'MeToo' movement has struck another senior journalist, Vinod Dua, as filmmaker and a freelancer Nishtha Jain accused him of sexually harassing her for several days about 26 years ago.

“The man was Vinod Dua. When I read about his outrage against Akshay Kumar's sexist words to his daughter Malika Dua, I said to myself he's (Dua) obviously forgotten that he was no less sexist, no less misogynist, no less creepy a sexual harasser, potential rapist,” she said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Narrating her story in detail, the filmmaker claimed that when she met Dua for a job interview in 1989, he began telling “a lewd sexual joke" to her before she could settle down.

“I don't remember the joke but it wasn't worth a laugh, just dirty. I felt hot in my face and I sat there most probably with an angry look,” she said.

She said she had just graduated from the Jamia Mass Communication Centre and went to meet Dua, who ran a very popular show 'Janvani,' for an interview as he was starting a new project in which she was interested.

During the interview, she said, Dua explained the job to her and asked for her salary expectations.

“I quoted an amount that most graduates were getting at the time—Rs 5,000. He looked at me and said, 'Tumhari aukat kya hai?' I don't know what had hit me. I was stunned. What was this about?” she said.

Jain said she soon got a job as a video editor in Newstrack.

“I don't know how this man learnt about it. He had friends in my office who would inform him when I would be working late. One night as I came down to the parking, he was there. He said, he wanted to talk to me and asked me to enter his car—a black SUV/Jeep...Assuming that he wanted to apologise for his behaviour, I entered the car but before I could even settle down he began slobbering all over my face,” she claimed.

Jain claimed she somehow managed to get out and got into her office car and leave.

“I spotted him again in the parking in the coming nights and would go right back and wait till someone was ready to leave along with me in the office car. After a few days he stopped stalking me...I won't be surprised if he denies. He's always been an opportunist,” she said concluding her story.

Dua, who currently works with The Wire news portal was yet to come out with a public response to Jain's accusation.

“We have seen Nishtha Jain's Facebook post where she accuses Dua of an incident of sexual harassment in 1989. Dua denies charges. Though the incident pertains to 26 years before Dua's association with The Wire, our ICC has taken note of Jain's allegation. We await the outcome of their deliberations in the matter,” the Founding Editor of The Wire said in a statement.