Actress Kangana Ranaut filed a counter-complaint in a Mumbai court on Monday, accusing lyricist Javed Akhtar of extortion and violation of privacy. The complaint was submitted in response to a defamation action brought by a former Rajya Sabha MP, who claimed Ms Ranaut pulled his name into a TV debate about actor Sushant Singh Rajput‘s death last year.
Today, Ms Ranaut appeared escorted by her Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) security entourage at the Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Mumbai’s Andheri. Kangana Ranaut was summoned to court last week but declined due to illness; she was told that failing to appear at today’s session would issue a warrant.
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The court noted Ms Ranaut’s presence and adjourned the case until October 1st. Ms Ranaut has also requested a transfer, which will be heard on November 15th. Mr Akhtar’s counsel had termed Ms Ranaut’s plea an “orchestrated effort to prolong the case procedures” at the last hearing on September 14th, when she had requested exemption after having “acquired COVID-19 symptoms.”
The Bombay High Court denied her motion to dismiss the defamation action earlier this month. Rizwan Siddique, her lawyer, said that the Metropolitan Magistrate had “mechanically ordered the investigation” against his client “without providing any reasons.” Mr Akhtar’s witnesses, he said, had not been questioned under oath. Jay Bharadwaj, Javed Akhtar’s lawyer, asked for the petition to be dismissed, claiming that “the magistrate used his mind to conduct an inquiry after reviewing Mr Akhtar’s allegation.”
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After hearing both parties, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere declared that the magistrate court’s decision commencing the proceedings had no procedural violations or errors. In the aftermath of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June last year, which sparked massive controversy and led to probes by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate, as well as investigations into alleged drug use in the film industry, Javed Akhtar claims Kangana Ranaut dragged in his name while referring to a Bollywood ‘coterie.’
