Kangana’s pleas seeking transfer of proceedings in spat with Javed Akhtar rejected

Ranaut claimed she had “lost faith” in the Andheri court after the judge wanted her presence before it. In September last year, the court said it would issue an arrest warrant if she skipped the following hearing. Her transfer plea alleged “prejudice” on the part of the court, saying the judge had warned of arrest even though charges against her were bailable, non-congizable and compoundable.

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Akhtar’s lawyer had opposed her transfer pleas saying the judge had accommodated her requests and not taken any coercive action against her.

In October 2021, the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court rejected her plea for transferring the cases stating that her grounds were “vague, without any reasonable apprehensions”. It had also said the judge had merely followed the legal procedure and could not be said to be biased against her.

Ranaut then moved the Dindoshi sessions court stating that in rejecting her plea, the magistrate court had failed to bring on record the reasoning given by the court hearing the two cases in defence of her allegations. This appeal was dismissed in December and she approached the sessions court.

Akhtar claimed in his defamation complaint that she had made baseless allegations against him in a 2020 interview following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Last  year Ranaut filed a counter-complaint against Akhtar alleging he had criminally intimidated her. Akhtar’s lawyer had argued that the allegations were aimed at prolonging the hearing on the defamation complaint.