By: Mohnish Singh
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut appeared before a Mumbai court on Monday in connection with a criminal defamation complaint filed against her by noted screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar.
The award-winning actress said that she had lost faith in the magistrate’s court as it indirectly “threatened” her of issuing a warrant if she failed to appear before it in a bailable offence.
Ranaut also moved a counter-complaint in the court against Akhtar for alleged “extortion and criminal intimidation”, and her lawyer informed the court that they had filed an application before the chief metropolitan magistrate, seeking transfer of hearing into the complaint to another court.
The actor in her complaint said following her public dispute with a co-star, Akhtar had called her and her sister Rangoli Chandel to his house with “malafide intentions and ulterior motives and then criminally intimidated and threatened” her.
As per the complaint, Akhtar had forced Ranaut to tender a written apology to her co-star. She further alleged that Akhtar had threatened her with dire consequences and told her that she would be making her own life miserable by indulging in such a public fight with her co-star, who comes from a powerful background and family.
“The words that were used by the accused (Akhtar) were ‘if you do not say sorry to Hrithik Roshan, you will have to commit suicide because they will put you in jail. They have found all clues and evidence and they know that the case is completely in their hands’,” the complaint said.
Ranaut appeared before the court on Monday for the first time since summons was issued to her in February this year, and completed the bail formalities.
