Kangana Ranaut accuses Javed Akhtar of 'criminal intimidation', seeks transfer of case

A Mumbai Court heard writer/lyricist Javed Akhtar's defamation case against Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut on Monday. The actress, who had sought an exemption in the last hearing, appeared before the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court today. During the proceedings, Kangana Ranaut's lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui filed a transfer application in the case alleging that the actress 'had lost faith' in the Andheri court. The Queen actress said that the court is trying to 'threaten her' with warrants and asked for the case to be reassigned to another court. 

It is important to mention that Kangana had failed to appear before the Andheri court at the last hearing claiming ill-health and COVID-19 related symptoms. Thereafter, the court had granted an exception to her and had warned her that it will issue an arrest warrant against her if she is not present in future hearings. It noted that the actress had not appeared even a single time for the proceedings which began February 2021. 

Kangana Ranaut accuses Javed Akhtar of extortion

Apart from a transfer application, Kangana Ranaut has also filed a counter-complaint against Javed Akhtar. In the application, she had raised charges related to invasion of rights, criminal intimidation, threat, extortion, and invasion of privacy. Javed Akhtar was also present at the hearing in the defamation case. After accepting her applications, the Andheri court adjourned the matter till November 15. Her transfer application will be heard on October 1. 

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

(With Agency Inputs)