Court refuses permanent exemption from appearance to Kangana Ranaut in defamation plaint by Javed Akhtar

A court in Mumbai on Tuesday (March 22) refused to grant a permanent exemption from appearance to actor Kangana Ranaut in the defamation complaint filed by Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar. The Andheri metropolitan magistrate rejected the application filed by Ranaut seeking permanent exemption from appearing in the court during the hearing of the complaint. The court in its brief order said it “assures the accused (Ranaut) that she will be exempted on specific situations if needed”.

The magistrate exempted Ranaut from appearing before the court on Tuesday and adjourned the hearing on Akhtar’s complaint till April. Akhtar had filed the complaint in court in November 2020, claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview, which allegedly damaged his reputation.

He had claimed that Ranaut dragged his name during the interview while referring to a ‘coterie’ existing in Bollywood, following the alleged suicide by actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Ranaut had later filed a counter-complaint in the same court against Akhtar for alleged “extortion and criminal intimidation”.

The actress 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.