Sessions court stays proceedings against Javed Akhtar in cross-complaint filed by Kangana Ranaut

The sessions court has stayed the criminal proceedings against Javed Akhtar initiated by a magistrate court based on a complaint by Kangana Ranaut. Akhtar claims the complaint was filed to harass him and the magistrate court failed to consider the delay in pursuing the case. Ranaut's lawyer argues that Akhtar is trying to undermine her case and salvage his reputation. Ranaut had filed a cross-complaint against Akhtar in 2021, alleging that he had meddled in her dispute with Hrithik Roshan and made defamatory statements about her.

The sessions court on Thursday stayed the criminal proceedings initiated by a metropolitan magistrate court in Andheri against lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar based on a cross-complaint lodged against him by actor Kangana Ranaut.

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Akhtar approached the sessions court through advocate Jay Bharadwaj, challenging the summons issued by the magistrate court on July 24, which observed that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against Akhtar for various offences, including criminal intimidation and insulting the modesty of the actress.

In his plea before the sessions court, Akhtar claimed that the complaint by Ranaut was filed only to harass him, and she did not seriously pursue it, as even after filing it in September 2021, she made an appearance to give her statement only in July 2022, that too after the court’s remarks.

Besides, claimed Akhtar, the magistrate court passed the order of issuing process against him hastily and failed to consider that there was ‘no cogent explanation for the inordinate and fatal delay… by Respondent No. 2 (Ranaut) in her complaint’.

On Thursday, Ranaut’s lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee, submitted their response to Akhtar’s plea, stating that Akhtar had intentionally tried to confuse the sessions court by attempting to undermine her case. He added that the unfavorable order of issuing process against him for criminal intimidation and outraging the modesty of a woman must have severely tarnished his reputation, and he had approached the court “in a desperate attempt to salvage his reputation by filing this untenable and baseless petition”.

In her cross-complaint filed in 2021, Ranaut had alleged that the renowned lyricist-screenwriter had unnecessarily meddled in her dispute with her co-star, Hrithik Roshan, and attacked her moral character “by making unwarranted and uncalled-for statements and imputing unchastity to her, and intentionally insulted her modesty by commenting on her personal relationship with a co-star”.

Claiming that Akhtar had in March 2016 called her and her sister Rangoli Chandel to his residence, where he threatened her with dire consequences if she failed to tender an apology to Roshan, Kangana had sought to prosecute him for various offences.

The actress filed the cross-complaint in September 2021 as a counterblast to the defamation complaint filed by Akhtar in November 2020, seeking to prosecute her for offences punishable under Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to Akhtar, in her television interview on July 20, 2020, Ranaut had referred to him and some other film personalities as “Bollywood’s suicide brigade”. In the interview, she had also alleged that Akhtar called her to his house in March 2016 and told her that Rakesh Roshan and his family were “very big” people. He told me: ‘If you don’t apologise to them, you will have nowhere to go. They will put you in jail and eventually the only path will be that of destruction… you will commit suicide. He shouted and yelled at me. I was shaking in his house.’

In his complaint, the 77-year-old lyricist claimed that the statements made by Ranaut in her television interview were false and defamatory and had damaged his reputation. He added that the actress dragged his name in following the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, while referring to a ‘coterie’ existing in Bollywood.

On December 19, 2020, the magistrate court ordered the Juhu police to investigate Akhtar’s complaint and file a report by January 16, 2021. Accordingly, the Juhu police filed their report, stating, “There was a meeting between Akhtar and Ranaut in March 2016. In the said meeting, Dr Ramesh Agrawal (family physician of Kangana, Akhtar and the Roshans) was also present. Akhtar never told her (Ranaut) that she would commit suicide or would have to go to jail.”

The police also said that during the investigation, they had issued summons to Ranaut on several occasions but she did not turn up. They recorded the statements of Akhtar, a family friend of his and Dr Agrawal. In his statement, Dr Agrawal said that in 2015-16, he came to know about the problems between Hrithik Roshan and Ranaut, and Akhtar had asked him to mediate and resolve the dispute, since he knew both of them well.

Dr Agrawal added that when he asked Ranaut, she agreed to meet Akhtar at his house to discuss the issue between her and Roshan. Supporting Akhtar, Dr Agrawal said the lyricist had never said things like “You will commit suicide and you will be sent to prison”.