A metropolitan magistrate court in Mumbai on Saturday directed police to investigate famous Bollywood lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar’s complaint of defamation against actor Kangana Ranaut for her alleged personal comments made during an interview.
The lyricist had approached the magistrate court last month with a complaint of defamation against Ranaut. Earlier this month, on December 3, his statement was recorded by the magistrate for verification of the complaint.
On Saturday, Akhtar’s lawyer argued for action on the complaint and asked the court to take cognizance of the same. The Magistrate court after hearing the arguments, directed Juhu police to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made in the complaint and submit a report by January 16.
The court’s direction came under section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which empowers a magistrate court to conduct an inquiry either itself or by directing any authority, including the police, into any complaint submitted to it.
Akhtar, through his lawyer Niranjan Mundargi, had filed a private complaint on November 2 against the actor under section 499 (defamation) and section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Akhtar had 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 because of such comments, he received so many hate calls and messages and was also trolled on social media. He argued that the messages and comments caused damage to his reputation.
