Kangana Ranaut appeared before the Andheri (Bombay) magistrate’s court on July 4 in the defamation case filed by veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar and the counter-complaint she had filed. She pleaded not guilty to the charges in Javed Akhtar’s defamation complaint. The matter will come up for hearing on July 29.
The court recorded the actress’ verification statement in the counter-complaint she filed against Akhtar. The proceedings in that case had been made in camera in April.
Javed Akhtar’s defamation complaint was submitted in November 2020 before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate’s court. His plea said that he was shocked when he learnt on July 19, 2020, that Kangana had in an interview to a TV news channel damaged his reputation by falsely attributing statements to him. In turn, Kangana in 2021 had accused Javed Akhtar of extortion and criminal intimidation, among other charges. She claimed that in a public dispute with Hrithik Roshan, Javed Akhtar had called her sister and her to his house at Juhu in Bombay and threatened her and forced her to tender a written apology to Hrithik.