In response to actor Kangana Ranaut’s challenge of a Magistrate court’s dismissal of her transfer plea in the ongoing criminal defamation case filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar, the latter submitted that her plea is devoid of merit.
The defamation case traces back to November 2020, when Akhtar filed a complaint against Ranaut for allegedly making defamatory remarks about him during an interview with Republic TV. In the interview that aired on July 19, 2020, shortly after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Ranaut had said that some of the senior members of the Hindi film industry, including Akhtar, were part of a “gang” that was against “outsiders.”
After several failures to appear before the court in the case and faced with a warning from the magistrate that a warrant would be issued against her for this, Ranaut finally appeared in court on September 20.
On that day, she filed a private complaint accusing Akhtar of criminal intimidation and extortion. Ranaut alleged that during her public spat with actor Hrithik Roshan in 2016, the veteran lyricist and screenwriter invited her and her sister Rangoli Chandel to his house with malafide intentions and forced her to give a written apology to Roshan. She also claimed that Akhtar threatened her with dire consequences if she refused.
At the time, she had also sought to transfer the defamation case claiming she had “no faith in the court.” Her plea was dismissed by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) at Esplanade, Mumbai on October 21.
On December 17, Ranaut sought to transfer her extortion case, alleging bias on the part of the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate hearing the defamation case. She did not wish to proceed with her extortion complaint before the same judge, she said. However, her plea was rejected the following day.
The actor had also filed a petition challenging the dismissal of her transfer plea. Ranaut stated that the CMM failed to appreciate that the Andheri Magistrate “grossly misused his power to intentionally cause injury to her.”
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In the 118-page reply submitted by Akhtar to Ranaut’s challenge petition, the lyricist has stated that contrary to her claims of bias, the Andheri Magistrate had in fact accommodated her requests despite these being vehemently opposed by Akhtar’s counsel. He also pointed out that the Magistrate did not take any coercive action even when the actor failed to appear after being issued notice.
The Magistrate only finally issued a bailable warrant against her when urged to do so by Akhtar after Ranaut’s continued non-appearance, the lyricist’s response noted.
Akhtar further contended that the actor has simply been trying to derail and delay the proceedings by challenging the Andheri Magistrate’s ruling.
Recently, on December 13, Akhtar moved a plea in a Mumbai court seeking a non-bailable warrant against Ranaut for not appearing in the case citing ill health while she attended other events during the same time.