After Ira Trivedi shared her #MeToo story accusing Chetan Bhagat of trying to kiss her without permission, the author has now tried to defend himself by sharing an email from the woman in which she wrote "miss u kiss u".
Ira had recently narrated a decade-old incident in which she said that Chetan once tried to plant a kiss on her lips, and had continued his alleged sexually motivated behaviour towards her for a long time.
But now, Chetan has revealed an email from 2013 that ends with Ira signing off saying "miss u kiss u". The popular author shared the email with a caption in which he asked "so who wanted to kiss whom?"
"So who wanted to kiss whom? @iratrivedi's self-explanatory email from 2013 to me, esp last line, easily shows her claims from 2010 are false, and she knows this too. This mental harassment of me and my family has to stop. Please don't harm a movement with #fakecharges #harassed [sic]," he tweeted.
In some other tweets, Chetan spoke about the mental harassment he and his family has been going due to the "baseless" allegations. He also stated that #MeToo movement is about the truth and not about blindly supporting a gender.
"A person's reputation is their most prized asset and takes a lifetime of work to earn. To have these motivated, fake attacks on me is abhorrent and the sickest thing a person can do. Please don't support this kind of smear campaign," he tweeted.
"To those who abused me last few days, hope you will do right by me now. Ultimately, is this movement about the truth or blindly supporting a particular gender? Please don't let your biases make you believe things that are not true," read another tweet.
So who wanted to kiss whom? @iratrivedi’s self-explanatory email from 2013 to me, esp last line, easily shows her claims from 2010 are false, and she knows this too. This mental harassment of me and my family has to stop. Please don’t harm a movement with #fakecharges #harassed pic.twitter.com/SWeaSCfHLd
— Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) October 15, 2018
While many on social media opined that Ira saying "miss u kiss u" in an email to him does not give him the permission to kiss her, many others felt that Ira's accusations appear to be mala fide.
Meanwhile, Ira told CNN News 18 that the email was shared out of context and when asked if she would take any legal action, she said no.
