A sessions court in Mumbai on Wednesday rejected actor Kangana Ranaut’s pleas seeking the transfer of a defamation case lyricist Javed Akhtar has filed against her and her counter-complaint against him from a metropolitan magistrate’s court in Andheri. Ranaut has alleged the metropolitan magistrate is biased against her.
Additional sessions judge Shridhar Bhosale rejected the pleas. Ranaut moved the sessions court after the chief metropolitan magistrate in October rejected them.
Akhtar filed the case against Ranaut in November 2020 for allegedly making defamatory and baseless statements about him in an interview. Ranaut filed a counter-complaint accusing Akhtar of extortion and criminal intimidation. She alleged during her dispute with actor Hritik Roshan, Akhtar called her and threatened her to give a written apology to Roshan.
Ranaut moved the pleas under the Code of Criminal Procedure’s Section 408, which empowers sessions courts to transfer cases and appeals. She said the metropolitan judge was prima facie biased against her as he issued a bailable warrant in a summons triable case though her counsel represented her. Ranaut added the magistrate also did not decide her plea for permanent exemption and kept it pending. She said she was forced to file exemption applications and was threatened with arrest warrants in a bailable and non-cognisable case to secure her presence. “…I have no faith in this court,” her lawyer said on Ranaut’s behalf.
Akhtar’s lawyer, Jay K Bhardwaj, opposed the applications saying they were devoid of merit and deserved dismissal. “Strict action should be initiated against the applicant [Ranaut] for making blatantly incorrect and frivolous allegations against an honest and defenceless judicial officer [the metropolitan magistrate] who only discharged his duties in compliance with the provisions of Code of Criminal Procedure,” Bharadwaj said.
Bharadwaj accused Ranaut of making baseless insinuations against the judicial officer and factually incorrect and contrary statements.