An Andheri magistrate court has summoned actor Kangana Ranaut in a criminal defamation complaint filed against her by lyricist Javed Akhtar for making statements against him in an interview to Republic TV in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.
Magistrate RR Khan took cognizance of the complaint after the Juhu police filed an inquiry report. Akhtar’s advocate Niranjan Mundargi said the report contained the statements of a Dr. Ramesh Agarwal who is a common friend present during Akhtar’s and Kangana’s meeting in which she had claimed in the TV interview to have been threatened by Akhtar to settle issues between her and another actor or face consequences. Akhtar claims he only counselled her as a senior member of the film fraternity. Also among statements is that of film trade analyst Komal Nahta who had telephoned Akhtar after coming across the interview and enquired about the allegations. Kangana, who was summoned by the police, had not turned up.
In mid-December last year, the court had directed the senior police inspector of Juhu police station to file an inquiry report after Akhtar had appeared before the court and given his statement, verifying the contents of the complaint submitted before the court.
In this complaint filed in November last year, the lyricist had stated that Kangana had made comments in an interview to Republic TV on 20 July, 2020 wherein she had called him part of a certain “gang” in context of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case. Akhtar had further stated about the social media trolling he faced as a result of her allegations.
His complaint said that his name has been needlessly dragged into an unconnected sensitive matter. The incident described by Kangana in the interview never took place, he said and added that she has chosen to defame him to amplify her public presence.
