Court summons Javed Akhtar on Kangana Ranaut's complaint of intimidation

A Magistrate court in Mumbai has summoned Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar on actor Kangana Ranaut's complaint under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (insult to the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. Akhtar is required to appear before the Andheri court on August 5.Ranaut filed the complaint against Akhtar after he had filed a defamation complaint against her following an interview in 2021. In the interview, Ranaut used certain words, claiming that Akhtar had pressured her to apologise to actor Hrithik Roshan in 2016. At that time, Roshan and Ranaut were publicly involved in a dispute over some emails between them.

Ranaut and Javed's physician Dr Ramesh Agarwal was one of the witnesses before the 10th Magistrate's court. He talked about the meeting that took place between Javed and Kangana and her sister Rangoli Chandel in 2016. He informed the court that Javed had spoken to him about the issue between Kangana and Hrithik Roshan adding that there should be a settlement between the actors. As reported by India Today, when Javed's advocate Jay Bharadwaj asked the doctor about alleged defamatory words being spoken at the meeting, he said he didn't hear it. Dr Agarwal said, "The meeting lasted about 20-30 minutes, and before leaving, Javed told her, 'Aapko maafi mangni padegi (you will have to apologise)." When asked if Javed said "padegi ya mangiye (you will have to apologise or you seek forgiveness), he said it was "aap maafi mangiye (you seek forgiveness)." He also denied that there was 'any exchange of harsh words'.

After Kangana's lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee asked if the actor had asked him or Javed to mediate in the dispute between her and Hrithik, Dr Agarwal denied. He also agreed that he was part of the meeting at the request of Javed Akhtar. When asked about the agenda of the meeting and Hrithik and his family not being part of it, Dr Agarwal said that the agenda was that both would apologise to each other. He added he didn't know that 'Akhtar would not call the Roshans and only ask Kangana to apologise'.