Kangana Concealed Defamation Case For Favourable Order In Passport Case : Javed Akhtar to Bombay High Court

In an intervention application in the Bombay High Court, lyricist Javed Akhtar has accused Actor Kangana Ranaut of deliberately concealing facts to mislead the court and get a favourable order to renew her passport.

On Monday, the Bombay High Court disposed of two applications by Ranaut seeking directions to renew her passport after the Passport Authority said they would consider her application expeditiously.

The Authority had agreed to consider Kangana's plea after her lawyer made a statement that no criminal cases were pending against her and only FIRs were registered. Kangana's passport was renewed the next day.

In the intervention application, Akhtar claimed that Kangana should have disclosed the defamation case he had filed against her, especially when a specific query was put to her during the passport hearing if "any" criminal cases were pending.

Akhtar added that the Magistrate had taken cognisance of his complaint and issued process against her under section 204 of the CrPC.

"The Petitioner No. 1, in spite of the knowledge of the fact that Case No. 2575/SS/2020 titled Javed Akhtar vs Kangana Ranaut is pending against her before the 10th MM Andheri, deliberately failed to disclose the same to the Hon'ble Court with an intention to mislead and obtain a favourable order from this Court. Petitioner No. 1 is well aware of the said criminal case but deliberately concealed the same from this Court, in spite of there being a specific query," Akhtar has said.

The intervention plea is filed by advocate Jai Bharadwaj in Kangana's petition to quash the FIR against her in the Didda copyright row on author Ashish Kaul's private complaint.

Akhtar claims that Kangana cannot plead ignorance of the case he had filed against her as she appeared before the Andheri Magistrate and sought bail. She had challenged the order issuing process and a bailable warrant before the Dindoshi Sessions Court, which was dismissed.

DEFAMATION CASE

Akhtar has accused Kangana of damaging his "immaculate reputation by falsely attributing statements to him," in her interview with Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami, on July 19, 2020, soon after actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

He filed a complaint for offences punishable under sections 499 and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code in the Metropolitan Magistrate Court, in Andheri, in November 2020.

Before the sessions court, Kangana had challenged the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate Court's order issuing process against her under section 204 of the CrPC, on February 1. However, her petition was dimissed in April.