Bombay HC quashes Kangana Ranaut's plea for relief in Javed Akhtar's defamation case

The Bombay High Court has dismissed actor Kangana Ranaut's petition seeking dismissal of the proceedings initiated against her in the defamation case filed by lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar. 

The court had reserved its order in response to the petition on September 1. Justice Revati Mohite Dere, who had presided over that hearing, stated that Ranaut's petition 'stands dismissed.'

Kangana Ranaut's petition in defamation case filed by Javed Akhtar dismissed

In his defamation case filed in November, Javed Akhtar had accused Kangana of damaging his reputation with her statements in a media interview while linking him to a 'coterie' in Bollywood in the wake of the Sushant Singh Rajput case. The Juhu police was then asked by the Andheri metropolitan court to investigate the case. The court had also initiated criminal proceedings against Ranaut and issued summons to her at that time.

Seeking quashing of the initiation of criminal proceedings, Kangana had claimed, through her lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee, that the magistrate's court in suburban Andheri in Mumbai had failed to apply its mind to the case. 

Siddiquee had alleged that his witnesses were not examined, and called it a 'one-sided' police inquiry. He pointed out that only the Juhu Police's discretion was relied upon. He said that the magistrate should have ensured that no party was harassed.

"My witnesses were never examined. The magistrate should have ensured that no party is harassed," Siddiquee told the HC.

Akhtar's cousel Jay Bharadwaj had then stressed that the police had examined the complaint and the transcript of the statements made by Ranaut in the interview. He also highlighted that the witnesses and Ranaut had been summoned for an impartial inquiry, but they had not adhered to the summons.

In March, Ranaut's failure to appear as per the summons had even led to the court issuing a available warrant against her. The warrant was then quashed by magistrate court later.

Akhtar also approached the court in another case involving Ranaut, seeking to intervene in her passport renewal petition in July. He had claimed that she had concealed details of his defamation case against her to get a favourable verdict in the case.

(With PTI inputs)