Munmun Kaur
Published On: January 25, 2022 at 12:40 IST
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut challenged the Order of the Mumbai Court dismissing her plea against film writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar, in which she was seeking transfer of the criminal Complaint against Akhtar for extortion to another competent Magistrate before the Sessions Court.
Earlier, Ranaut’s cross-complaint against Akhtar was filed before Andheri Magistrate RR Khan, same as that of Akhtar’s defamation complaint. Later, she had filed a transfer petition before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) at Esplanade, Mumbai seeking transfer of her cross-complaint before RR Khan to another Magistrate. In her transfer plea before the CMM, she had said that she had “lost faith” in the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court. The application had also said that the Court indirectly “threatened” to issue a warrant against her if the actor failed to appear before the Court in a Bailable offence. However, the Esplanade CMM had rejected her transfer plea in December 2021 leading to the present appeal before the Sessions Court.
Kangana Ranaut’s present application was filed by Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee before the Borivali Sessions Court. Ranaut’s application said that the offence initiated against her was “non-cognizable, bailable and compoundable”. The application further read that despite being aware of the same, the Andheri court at every given opportunity sought to “misuse his powers and cause injury” to Ranaut even before the commencement of trial.
This is the second time that Ranaut is challenging a rejection of her transfer application.
The plea will be heard by Additional Sessions Judge Shridhar Bhosle on January 27, 2022.