Actor Kangana Ranaut, who finally appeared before the court in lyricist Javed Akhtar’s defamation case, has filed a private complaint accusing the latter of criminal intimidation and extortion, Live Law reported.
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.
Ranaut had finally physically appeared before the court on Monday in the defamation case filed against her by Akhtar after several warnings from the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court that she would face arrest if she failed to do so.
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The defamation case traces back to November 2020, when Akhtar had filed a complaint against Ranaut alleging that she had made defamatory remarks about him during an interview with Republic TV after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput by suicide on July 14. In the interview aired on July 19, 2020, Ranaut said that some of the senior members of the Hindi film industry, including Akhtar, were part of a “gang” that was against “outsiders” in the industry.
Ranaut’s plea seeking to quash the defamation case was dismissed by the Bombay High Court on September 9.
On Monday, the case was adjourned to October 1 after Ranaut sought to transfer the defamation case claiming she had “no faith in the court.” The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate will hear her counter-complaint at the same time.
In her complaint, Ranaut claims that Akhtar demanded a written apology to Roshan and threatened her by saying that if she refused she would be put in jail. “He blatantly told me that — ‘by indulging in a public fight with my powerful co-star and his family’, I shall be making my own life miserable because I shall be subsequently going to jail,” she stated in her complaint.
The controversy, which had started with Ranaut calling Roshan an “ex” who did “silly things” in an interview, soon turned into a legal tussle between the two. In May 2016, Roshan lodged a complaint with the cyber crime branch of the police against “unidentifiable individuals” for impersonating him and sending e-mails to Ranaut.
Ranaut’s complaint on Monday also stated that Akhtar had tried to question her moral character during the meeting at the latter’s house and said “that my co-star (with whom I had a dispute), had a lot of evidence against me and shall use all such pieces of evidence against me, which will put my moral character to shame and tarnish my public image.”
Ranaut said she did not lodge a complaint with the police regarding what happened with Akhtar at the time was because of her family. However, both she and her sister were “shaken and traumatized” by the incident, she added.