Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar, who is facing allegations of sexual assault by number of women journalists, has returned from his official foreign trip to Nigeria.

Talking to reporters after arriving in New Delhi, the minister said that there will be a statement later.

There were reports that he will be asked to tender his resignation after returning to India in the wake of several accusation of sexual misconduct against him.

Amid an increasing clamour for Union minister M J Akbar’s resignation, the BJP is likely to take a clear stand on the allegations of sexual harassment against him once he explains his position upon his scheduled return.

The junior foreign minister, who has been on an official trip abroad, has so far not responded to the charges.

While the BJP has maintained a studied silence on the matter so far, party sources have said the charges against him are serious, and his continuance as a minister is no longer guaranteed. A final call will be taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they said.

Also Read | #Metoo hits Indian cricket: BCCI seeks explanation from Rahul Johri ‘within a week’

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah has said that he was not in a position to comment on MJ Akbar as the claims against the Union Minister needed to be “looked into”.

“It’s difficult to comment on something that comes on a website. One can put anything on a website. So, this needs to be checked. If that is true or false, whether such an incident happened or not,” Shah said in an interview to ETV late Friday.

“It will have to be seen if it is the same person who is levelling allegations or someone else has put it up (on social media). All these things will have to be seen. And once we do it, we will certainly think over it (the action against Akbar),” he added.

More than half a dozen women journalists have accused Akbar of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour at various stages of his journalistic career, during which he launched and edited several newspapers.

On Friday, US-based journalist Majlie de Puy Kamp told online news portal HuffPost India that Akbar forcibly kissed her on the last day of her internship at The Asian Age office in 2007.

Earlier this week, FORCE magazine Executive Editor Ghazala Wahab, in an article on a news portal, wrote an account of her “harrowing experience” with Akbar.

(With agency inputs)