MeToo allegations against Pratik Sinha, co-founder of Alt News and friend of Mohd Zubair

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Over the past few years, many victims of sexual harassment have shown their courage and shared their experiences through the #MeToo movement. At the last, another woman opened her mouth. Through social media, she accused Alt News’ Pratik Sinha of alleged harassment.

“Hello reader! I contact you to tell my personal experience of being victim of a predator. I’m not one to talk about my personal life on social media, but in this case I had to make an exception. I chose to speak after much agony and thought, as the experience had a significant impact on me, in a deeply traumatic way. I had to think a lot because this is a man with a huge public profile; I had to weigh the consequences of voicing my experience because of this. But then I realized it was in the interest of the general public to speak out. And the person I’m talking about is Pratik Sinha from Alt News,” she said.

The victim said: ‘In June 2020 he told me that he thought the feeling he had for me was more than friendship and that he would like to pursue a relationship and that we should meet once the pandemic restrictions are over. As I had my own career/academic plans, I mentioned this and said that I could only think of being involved in a relationship after two years as I would need that to complete my academic commitments and that in the meantime , if he wanted to move on, he could. To this, he emphatically said that he did not speak, see, explore anything or anyone else and therefore would like to continue”. Conversations continued as before and almost daily he called/texted/chatted with me. Almost every other day we would talk for hours together. In November 2020, he suddenly stated that he didn’t seem to be able to connect emotionally and therefore didn’t want to pursue this relationship any longer. Still, we kept talking/messaging/conversing. In December 2020, he backtracked on his previous remarks and said he thought he still had feelings and would like to continue this relationship. And that he would like to meet as soon as possible after the pandemic is over or when we both have finished our vaccinations.

“In February 2021, due to his changes in stance on emotional connection, I stopped contacting him, but he continued to stalk me, call me, and message me. And then, in May 2021, he started telling me again that he would like to continue this relationship and invest time in it. Once again, his calls and messages kept pace with his stated intentions. All the while he had maintained that he was looking for a “monogamous” and “exclusive” relationship with me and that he didn’t talk at all, text, flirt, was not seeing or physically/emotionally involved with anyone else in any way. He even mentioned once that since March 2019; he was not physically involved with anyone, she said.

“Throughout our conversations about intimacy, there was only one thing that I had always maintained. Which was that “the last thing I would want to do is get involved. with a man who is involved (physically or emotionally) with someone else”. I always asked if he was “involved with someone physically or emotionally”. His answer was always a definite no. July 2021 he reiterated again that he has genuine feelings towards me and that he would like to take the relationship to the next level and therefore would like to meet as soon as possible.Then he suggested that we meet before I moved to Kolkata (which was probably going to be the first week of September) because it would be busy after that. There was also the fact that I had to move abroad for my university studies,” she said. added.

The victim further said: “Pratik proposed that we meet the first week of September 2021 – so we met and spent time together for three days. We became physically intimate together. I had told him very clearly that I was not at all interested in a casual meeting or an affair; when I asked him point-blank if this meeting was informal, he replied that “he wouldn’t make so much effort, changing two flights to meet someone, if it was informal”. Also, that “you know me well enough to know this isn’t a chance meeting” and that he really wanted to invest time in this relationship and come see me before I leave for graduate school. The mark of his commitment to this relationship, he said, was that he seriously considered getting married after two years, by which time I would have finished my studies. When I asked if his mother thought it was a casual meeting, again her response was that “she thinks there is something serious going on between us”. made it clear again and again. Which was, quite simply, commitment, seriousness and loyalty. And in each case, Pratik was adamant that his feelings were consistent with those. serious, committed and exclusive for me. I was satisfied with his assurances and believed in his words.

She further added, “During the third week of September 2021, he suddenly sent a message saying that he had misled me for a year and a half and that all the verbal assurances he had made to about the relationship were all drama and he hadn’t told the truth about any of those feelings with me that he was lying about his feelings towards me and also that he was “monogamous” and “exclusive ” for me. . My first instinct, naturally, was to shout loudly about it. I told him that I would say publicly how he had driven me. He immediately asked his friend for help to to mediate, who in turn contacted me, she messaged and called me under the guise of “trying to solve the problem”, but the real goal was to dissuade me from going public, silence me and thus protect him.

“Yes, I had fallen into his trap. And in the end, I felt violated, abused, traumatized, threatened, betrayed, hurt and wronged. I think my consent for the physical relationship was not informed consent because I was lied to. To think that this man had slept with a woman on August 15, 2021, just before he met me in the first week of September 2021, and was still claiming exclusive feelings for me even during that encounter, upsets me,” said the victim.

Notably, Pratik Sinha is the self-proclaimed fact checker and co-founder of Alt News, along with Mohd Zubair.

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