Police probe ordered into Javed Akhtar's complaint against Kangana
A metropolitan magistrate court in Mumbai today ordered a police investigation into lyricist-poet Javed Akhtar's defamation complaint against actor Kangana Ranaut for allegedly making derogatory comments against him. Akhtar had approached the magistrate court last month with his complaint. As per the complaint, Ranaut had made some personal remarks against the lyricist in her interviews. Here's more on this.
Last month, Akhtar had filed a criminal complaint against the actor before the Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai's Andheri for allegedly passing defamatory and baseless comments against him in TV interviews. His lawyer claimed during the hearing of the case that Ranaut has made derogatory remarks against the veteran lyricist, which has threatened the reputation that he has built in the last 55 years.
Akhtar's advocate Niranjan Mundargi had filed the complaint under Section 499 (defamation) and Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code on November 2. He presented his arguments today in the court and requested it to take action. The court has now asked the Juhu Police to conduct an inquiry into the said allegations and submit a report by January 16.
The court has given this order under Section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which empowers a magistrate court to conduct an inquiry either by itself or by giving orders to other authorities such as the police, over a complaint submitted to it.
For the unversed, Akhtar filed the complaint against Ranaut after she claimed that the veteran lyricist had threatened her not to speak about her alleged relationship with fellow actor Hrithik Roshan. He also said that Ranaut has accused him of being a part of a certain "coterie" of Bollywood, and that all these statements have contributed to tarnishing his image.
Separately, on Friday a case was filed against Ranaut by the political party Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) for allegedly passing derogatory remarks against its chief Upendra Kushwaha. Further, regarding her controversial comments on the ongoing farmers' protest, Ranaut has been slapped with two legal notices, one by a lawyer from Punjab and another by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC).
