The Javed Akhtar – Kangana Ranaut saga

A metropolitan magistrate court in Andheri, which has been hearing a matter pertaining to actor Kangana Ranaut and scriptwriter and poet, Javed Akhtar, found earlier this week that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against Akhtar on the charge of criminal intimidation which Ranaut had filed against the septuagenarian two years ago. Ranaut, in her mid-30s, had filed a counter-complaint against Akhtar, who had moved the Mumbai court on the charge of defamation. The judge has summoned Akhtar on August 5.

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The issue between the two National Award winners started in 2020, when Akhtar filed a defamation suit in November, seeking to prosecute Ranaut for offences punishable under section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.

A year later in September, Ranaut filed a counter-suit alleging that the lyricist had meddled in a dispute between her and actor Hrithik Roshan, attacked her moral character by making unwarranted and uncalled-for statements and imputed the lack of chastity to her, thereby intentionally insulting her modesty by commenting on her personal relationship with co-star. She further claimed that Akhtar, in March 2016, had called Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel to his residence where he threatened her with dire consequences, if she failed to tender an apology to Roshan.

Ranaut sought to prosecute Akhtar under Sections 383 (extortion), 384 (punishment for extortion), 387 (putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt in order to commit extortion), 503 (criminal intimidation), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.

According to Akhtar, in a television interview that aired on July 20, 2020, Ranaut referred to him and some other film personalities as “Bollywood’s suicide brigade.” She had added in the interview that “once (in March 2016) Javed Akhtar had called me to his house and told me that Rakesh Roshan and his family were very big people. If you don’t apologise to them, you will have nowhere to go. They will put you in jail, and eventually, the only path would be that of destruction… you will commit suicide. He shouted and yelled at me. I was shaking in his house.”

In his complaint, the 77-year-old lyricist claimed that the statements made by Ranaut in her television interview were false and defamatory and damaged his reputation. He added that the actress dragged his name while referring to a “coterie” in Bollywood following the death by suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

On December 19, 2020, the magistrate court ordered the Juhu police to investigate Akhtar’s complaint and file a report by January 16, 2021.

Accordingly, the Juhu police filed their report, stating that, “there was a meeting between Akhtar and Ranaut in March 2016. In the said meeting Dr Ramesh Agrawal (family physician of Kangana, Akhtar and Roshans) was also present. Akhtar never told her (Ranaut) that she will commit suicide, or she will have to go to jail.”

The police also said that during the investigation they had issued summons to Ranaut on several occasions, but she did not turn up. The police had, however, recorded statements of three other witnesses – Akhtar, the doctor and a family friend of Akhtar.

In the statement given to the police, Dr Ramesh Agrawal said that in 2015-16 he came to know about the problems between Hrithik Roshan and Ranaut and the lyricist had had asked him to mediate and resolve the dispute, since he knew both of them well.

Dr Agrawal added when he asked Ranaut, she agreed to meet Akhtar at his house to discuss the issue between her and Hrithik Roshan. Aggarwal supported Akhtar’s claims and said the lyricist never said things like ‘you will commit suicide, and you will be sent to prison etc.’”

On September 20, 2021, eleven days after the Bombay high court dismissed her plea for quashing of the defamation complaint filed by Akhtar, Ranaut filed the cross-complaint against Akhtar claiming that with mala-fide intention and ulterior motive, he called her and her sister to his residence and coerced her into tendering a written apology to Hrithik Roshan, thereby forcefully seeking to create a document (valuable security) in his favour. “Thus, the accused instilled fear in her mind seeking to criminally extort a written apology (valuable security) from her to favour her co-star,” her complaint stated.

The magistrate court, however, did not find substance in her allegations of extortion and issued a process for proceeding against the 77-year-old for offences of criminal intimidation and insulting Ranaut’s modesty. The court has now asked Akhtar to attend the court on August 5 to answer the charges.