Actress Kangana Ranaut on Friday resolved the defamation case over four years old by senior lyricist Javed Akhtar through arbitration. The BJP MP apologized to the script writer for “inconvenience”.
On Friday, the two appeared before a special court and apprised them of their decision to withdraw their complaints filed against each other. After appearing in court, the actress also posted a picture on her social media platform with Akhtar, stating that she had solved the legal matter.
The actress said that she made a statement against Akhtar due to misunderstanding and apologized for her inconvenience. Akhtar lodged a complaint against Ranaut in 2020, alleging that he dragged and damaged his ‘impeccable reputation’ by dragging his name in the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in a news channel in July that year.
Ranaut later filed a cross complaint against Akhtar, alleging criminal intimidation and dissolution of modesty. He claimed that during a meeting with Akhtar in 2016 at his residence, he criminally threatened him and demanded that he apologize to a co-star.
Ranaut’s lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui and Akhtar’s advocate Jai Kumar Bhardwaj said that the case was resolved after an hour -long arbitration before a special magistrate court in Bandra.
Bhardwaj told PTI-Bhasha that Ranaut said before the intermediary that he had made this statement due to misunderstanding and he had decided to withdraw it.
He said that Ranaut has apologized to Akhtar for the inconvenience caused by his statement and pledged not to make such a statement in future. Siddiqui said, “We were looking for mediation for a long time. We also exchanged the drafts. We have finally resolved the matter.”
He said, “There was no issue, only the words were to be decided, which was made today. We prepared the draft, signed it and both cases were withdrawn today.”
The case was initially heard in a magistrate court of Andheri. In 2024, when she was elected as MP (MP) from Mandi Lok Sabha constituency in Himachal Pradesh, the matter was transferred to a special magistrate court nominated for matters related to MPs and MLAs.
In his complaint, Akhtar claimed that Ranaut dragged his name during an interview after actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide, referring to a ‘troupe’ in Bollywood.
Ranaut posted a picture with Akhtar on Instagram and said that the veteran of the cinema was “kind and humble” during the arbitration process.
The BJP MP wrote in the caption, “Today Javed ji and I have solved my legal matter (defamation case) through arbitration. Javed ji has been very kind and compassionate in mediation, he also agreed to write songs for my next direction.”
