Mumbai Court Rejects Kangana Ranaut's Plea To Transfer Extortion Case Against Javed Akhtar From Magistrate Court

Kangana had filed a counter complaint against the veteran lyricist, who is pursuing a criminal defamation case against the 'Thalaivii' actress.

Mumbai: A court of the chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) here on Saturday rejected Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut's plea seeking transfer of her "extortion" complaint against veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar out of the magistrate's court in suburban Andheri. Ranaut had filed a counter complaint against Akhtar, who is pursuing a criminal defamation case against her.

In her complaint before the magistrate court, Ranaut had accused Akhtar of "extortion and criminal intimidation".

The actor, through her lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee, had approached the CMM for transferring this case, saying she "lost faith" in the magistrate court.

In her petition, Ranaut had claimed that the court of the metropolitan magistrate had indirectly threatened her of issuing a warrant if she failed to appear before it in a bailable offence.

In October, the CMM court had rejected her plea seeking transfer of the defamation case filed by Akhtar against her to another court.

The court had held that the Andheri metropolitan magistrate, hearing the defamation case against Ranaut, acted "judiciously" and hasn't shown any bias against the actor.

Akhtar (76) had filed a complaint in the Andheri court in November last year, claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview, which allegedly damaged his reputation.