A magistrate court at Andheri in Bombay yesterday (December 19) asked the police to conduct an inquiry into Javed Akhtar’s complaint against Kangana Ranaut, alleging that she had made defamatory statements against him to a television news channel in an interview after the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput. The court said, “The senior police inspector of Juhu police station is directed to make an inquiry under section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code and file a report accordingly.” The writer-lyricist-poet was present in court during the hearing yesterday. The court adjourned the case to January 16, 2021, by which time it asked the police to submit its inquiry report.
Javed’s statement had been recorded by the magistrate court on December 3. Javed Akhtar’s plea said that he was shocked when he learnt on July 19 that Ranaut had given an interview to television anchor Arnab Goswami of Republic TV and Republic Bharat, damaging his “immaculate reputation by falsely attributing statements to him”. The plea further mentioned that during the course of the 57-minute interview, Kangana proceeded to give her opinions on the circumstances around Sushant’s death without appearing to have any direct personal knowledge of these. In the same interview, the plea added, she referred to Javed Akhtar as being part of an alleged “suicide gang”.
Javed claimed in the plea that these false and malicious allegations had had an adverse effect of lowering his reputation and had maligned his dignity in the eyes of right-thinking members of society, members of the film fraternity, and friends and acquaintances. Javed’s plea elaborated that he was one of the most senior artistes in the film industry, with his successful career spanning over a period of more than 55 years, which in itself was a rare achievement. He was also nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha during the period March 2010 to March 2016.