(NEW DELHI) — M.J. Akbar, India’s junior external affairs minister, resigned Wednesday amid accusations by 20 women of sexual harassment during his previous career as one of the country’s most prominent news editors, becoming the most powerful man to fall in India’s burgeoning #MeToo movement. Akbar said in a statement that he would “challenge false accusations” in a personal capacity, referring to a criminal case he filed Monday against the first woman to accuse him. Akbar, 67, first served as a lawmaker for India’s then-ruling India National Congress party between 1989 and 1991.