Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has been summoned by the Mumbai Police in a defamation case filed by noted writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar. Kangana has been asked to appear before the Juhu police in Mumbai on Friday.
Akhtar filed a criminal complaint against Kangana in November last year before the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate for allegedly making defamatory and baseless comments against him in television interviews. He alleged that she dragged his name while referring to a "coterie" existing in Bollywood, in TV interviews after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June last year. In the complaint filed against Kangana, Javed Akhtar had alleged that she “needlessly dragged his name in an unconnected sensitive matter,” and added that he was allegedly called a “vulture”. As per reports, the actor made the alleged remarks in an interview with Arnab Goswami on his show titled ‘Kangana Ranaut With Arnab Goswami On Nation Wants To Know.’
In the complaint, Javed also alleged that Kangana had falsely claimed that Akhtar threatened her to keep silent about her alleged relationship with actor Hrithik Roshan. Javed had complained that many media outlets had carried the actor’s alleged remarks against him and that it tarnished his public image.
The court on January 17 had allowed the police time till February 1 to file a report of their probe into the defamation complaint.
Earlier in January, Kangana and her sister Rangoli Chandel deposed before the Bandra police in a sedition case filed against them. They were booked following a complaint by Sahil Ashrafali Sayyed, a casting director and fitness trainer in Bollywood. The duo were booked for spreading communal hatred and propagating “very objectionable” comments through their social media posts. Kangana and her sister were booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc.), 295A (deliberate acts hurting religious sentiments) and 124-A (sedition).
(With inputs from PTI)