Form of words:
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by actress Kangana Ranaut, seeking quashing of criminal defamation proceedings initiated against her by a court here based on a complaint by lyricist Javed Akhtar.
The High Court judge, Justice Revati Mohite Dere, who had reserved her order on the petition on September 1, said that the applicant’s (Ranaut’s) plea is “dismissed”.
Ranaut, through his lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui, had challenged the defamation proceedings initiated by the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate’s court earlier this year, saying the court had failed to put its mind to the matter.
Akhtar’s lawyer Jai Bhardwaj, however, told the high court that the magistrate had directed a police probe after going through the lyricist’s complaint and interview excerpts of Ranaut in which he made the alleged defamatory remarks.
Akhtar had filed a criminal complaint against Ranaut in November last year before the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate for allegedly making derogatory and baseless remarks against him in a television interview to journalist Arnab Goswami.
In December 2020, the court directed the Juhu police to investigate Akhtar’s complaint against Ranaut and then initiate criminal proceedings against him, and summoned him in February this year.
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