The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed Kangana Ranaut’s plea challenging criminal defamation proceedings initiated by Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai’s Andheri on Javed Akhtar’s complaint. Ranaut had sought quashing of entire proceedings including orders and summons issued to her till date arising out of Akhtar’s complaint. The verdict upheld Magistrate’s discretionary order directing police to inquire into the allegations made by Akhtar in his complaint.
In November, 2020 Akhtar had filed a defamation case against Kangana Ranaut over her remarks on him during a television show.
In an interview given to Republic TV in July 2020, Kangana Ranaut had made some startling revelations about the Hindi film industry and about what she called the movie mafia. Speaking to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Ranaut had alleged that after her controversy with actor Hrithik Roshan, Akhtar had called her to his house and asked her to apologise to Roshan. She added that he had warned her that if she did not do so she would have to commit suicide.
“Javed Akhtar called me to his house, he said if you do not say sorry to Hrithik Roshan you will commit suicide because they will put you in jail. They have found all the clues, all the evidence. They know the case is in completely in their hands.”, she said.
In other interview given to Republic TV, Ranaut had alleged that while Akhtar and his likes pretend to be ‘atheists’, in reality, keep an eye on people within the industry to check whether they are pro-Islam or not. She further alleged that then that these people ‘filter’ Islam-friendly people in the industry and promote them.
Irked, Akhtar sued Ranaut.