A court today (October 21) rejected Kangana Ranaut’s petition seeking transfer of Javed Akhtar’s criminal defamation case filed against her. She had filed the transfer petition before the chief metropolitan magistrate last month, saying that she had lost faith in the Andheri (Bombay) metropolitan magistrate’s court hearing the case as, according to her, the court had “threatened” her by telling her that a warrant against her would be issued if she failed to appear before it in a bailable offence.
Javed Akhtar had alleged that the plea was filed by the actress only to delay the proceedings and it was devoid of all merits, deserving to be dismissed.
After hearing arguments from both the sides, the court rejected Kangana’s petition. The detailed order is not yet out.
It may be recalled that Javed Akhtar had filed the defamation complaint in the court in November last year, alleging that Kangana had made defamatory statements against him in an interview on Republic TV, in which she said, Akhtar, as part of a Bollywood gang, had criminally intimidated and threatened her some years ago. The interview was given by Ranaut in the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June last year.