A Mumbai Magistrate court on Tuesday has warned actress Kangana Ranaut saying it will issue a warrant against her if she fails to appear on the next date of hearing on September 20. Kangana is facing a criminal defamation case initiated against her by lyricist Javed Akhtar
Ranaut’s lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui sought a week’s exemption citing ill-health. She was supposed to appear before the court today.
Her lawyer also submitted a medical certificate before the court, saying that the actor has been traveling for her film’s promotion and has “developed COVID-19 symptoms”.
Akhtar’s lawyer meanwhile said it was an orchestrated tactic to delay the case proceedings.
Ranaut has denied to appear before the court for one reason or the other since summons were issued to her in February this year, that is eight months back, the lyricists lawyer said.
The metropolitan court’s magistrate R R Khan granting permission to Ranaut, said she should be present for hearing on September 20 and if she fails to appear on the next hearing, a warrant will be issued against her.
The Bombay High Court had last thursday dismissed a plea filed by the actor seeking the quashing of criminal proceedings initiated against her by the local court on the complaint filed by Akhtar.
In November last year, 76-year-old Javed Akhtar had filed a complaint in the magistrate’s court, claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview with Arnab Goswami, calling him part of a certain gang when speaking on actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. He alleged that her statements damaged his reputation and he suffered a lot of harassment on social media and people made phone calls asking him about it, causing him unnecessary distress.
