'#MeToo being used for character assassination'

Mumbai: A day after singer Shweta Pandit accused Anu Malik of harassment, a lawyer for the music composer said that the #MeToo movement, which is having its India moment, is being used for his client's "character assassination".

Pandit took to Twitter to accuse Malik of being a "pedophile and sexual predator", saying he misbehaved with her when she was a greenhorn in the Hindi music industry. He denied the allegation. In a statement Malik's lawyer, Zulfiquar Memon said, "The allegations made against my client are emphatically denied as completely false and baseless.My client respects the #MeToo movement but to use this movement to start a character assassination mission is obnoxious." Pandit is not the first one to name the music director, currently a judge on reality singing TV show 'Indian Idol'. Last week, singer Sona Mohapatra had also called Malik a "serial predator", a claim he had denied.