Celebrated lyricist-writer-poet Javed Akhtar has filed an affidavit in the Andheri (Bombay) metropolitan magistrate’s court, saying that the petition filed by Kangana Ranaut in the court is with the sole intention of delaying the defamation proceedings filed against her. The affidavit states that the contentions of Kangana are baseless and unfounded. It also states that Kangana had not been appearing before the magistrate for the last five dates, on one pretext or the other.
The actress had filed a plea before the Bombay high court to quash the criminal defamation proceedings initiated by Javed Akhtar against her in the Andheri metropolitan magistrate’s court. She had sought quashing of the entire proceedings against her, arising from Akhtar’s complaint, which would include all the orders, as well as summons, issued till date, on the ground that the same were a direct consequence of cognisance taken by the magistrate. The high court petition of Kangana stated that the magistrate was duty-bound to examine the complainant and the witnesses named in the complaint, on oath as per section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure instead of simply directing the Juhu police in Bombay to conduct an inquiry on the magistrate’s behalf.
Javed Akhtar, opposing the plea, submitted that none of the orders of the magistrate required the high court’s interference. Javed Akhtar also submitted that the magistrate had passed the issuance order after considering the evidence placed before him. The detailed verification statement of Javed Akhtar was recorded on oath by the magistrate and the statements of the witnesses were recorded before the Juhu police, he added.
It may be recalled that Javed AKhtar had filed a defamation suit against Kangana last year as she had made allegedly defamatory comments about him in an interview on Republic TV and Republic Bharat, in which she referred to him as being part of a suicide gang in Bollywood. The interview was taken in the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise in June 2020.