Court rejects Kangana Ranaut’s plea for transfer of defamation case filed by Javed Akhtar

A court here on Thursday rejected Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut’s petition seeking transfer of the criminal defamation case filed against her by lyricist Javed Akhtar.

The actor had filed the transfer petition before the chief metropolitan magistrate last month, saying that she had “lost faith” in the magistrate’s court hearing the case, as it indirectly “threatened” her of issuing a warrant if she failed to appear before it in a bailable offence.

However, Akhtar had earlier opposed the petition saying that it was “devoid of all merits” and is “liable to be dismissed at the very threshold”.

The veteran lyricist had alleged that the plea was filed only to delay the proceedings before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate court (which is currently presiding over the case).

After hearing arguments from both the sides, the court rejected Ranaut’s petition.

However, a detailed order is yet to be made available.

Akhtar (76) had filed the complaint in the court in November last year, claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview, which allegedly damaged his reputation.

The complaint is being heard by metropolitan magistrate court, Andheri.

In his complaint, Akhtar claimed that Ranaut dragged his name during an interview while referring to a ‘coterie’ existing in Bollywood, following the alleged suicide by actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June last year.

Ranaut has also moved a counter complaint in the Andheri court against Akhtar for alleged “extortion and criminal intimidation” before the metropolitan magistrate court.

The actor in her complaint against Akhtar said that following her public dispute with her co-star, the lyricist had called her and her sister Rangoli Chandel to his house with “malafide intentions and ulterior motives and then criminally intimidated and threatened” her. As per the complaint, Akhtar had forced Ranaut to tender a written apology to her co-star.