Mumbai court asks police to probe Javed Akhtar’s defamation complaint against Kangana Ranaut

Javed Akhtar and Kangana Ranaut.

A Mumbai court Saturday directed the police to investigate a criminal complaint filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar against actor Kangana Ranaut for allegedly defaming him in a television interview.

The complaint, filed last month before the Metropolitan Magistrate at Andheri, Mumbai, claims that Ranaut unnecessarily dragged Akhtar’s name in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

On Saturday, advocate Niranjan Mundargi, appearing for Akhtar, submitted that in the interview Ranaut allegedly commented that Akhtar was part of an alleged “Bollywood suicide gang” who could “get away with anything”.

He said that because of such comments, the veteran lyricist was getting hate messages and the same would cause damage to his reputation and, therefore, action be taken as per Section 500 (Punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Mundargi requested the court to invoke Section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to summon the witness to the conversation on the channel for his statement or direct the police to probe the complaint.

Section 202 of the CrPC empowers the magistrate to conduct a probe either itself or by directing any authority, including police, to probe any complaint submitted to it.

After hearing submissions, the magistrate court directed Juhu police station to conduct an investigation in the complaint and submit its report by January 16.

© The Indian Express (P) Ltd