Mumbai Police summons Kangana Ranaut in defamation case filed by Javed Akhtar

In November 2020, Javed Akhtar had filed a criminal complaint against Kangana Ranaut for allegedly making defamatory and baseless comments against him in television interviews.

The Mumbai Police has summoned actor Kangana Ranaut in connection with a defamation case filed against her by veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, news agency agency PTI reported on Thursday. Ranaut has been asked to appear before the Juhu police on Friday, a police official was quoted as saying.

Javed Akhtar has filed a complaint against Kangana Ranaut.

This comes after a magistrate court on January 16 gave the police time till February 1 to file a report of their enquiry into the complaint filed by Akhtar.

In November 2020, Akhtar had filed a criminal complaint against Ranaut before the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate, for allegedly making defamatory and baseless comments against him in television interviews. He had sought action against the actor under relevant sections of the IPC.

In his complaint, Akhtar has alleged that Ranaut had defamed him during one television interview by claiming that he had threatened her to withdraw a case against actor Hrithik Roshan.

He added that Ranaut had called him part of an alleged suicide gang and claimed in the interview that Akhtar threatened her that she will have no option but to take her own life, if she didn’t back out. Akhtar claimed that following such comments, he received several hate calls and messages and was also trolled on social media. He argued that the messages and comments caused damage to his reputation.

Akhtar alleged that the actor dragged his name while referring to a "coterie" existing in Bollywood. Her remarks came in the backdrop of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June last year. She had also claimed that Akhtar had threatened her to not speak about her alleged relationship with actor Hrithik Roshan, the complaint stated.