MUMBAI: Now, Akhtar has alleged that she is delaying their ongoing legal proceedings. According to a news report, he has stated in his affidavit that the contentions of Kangana are unfounded and baseless. The report stated that Akhtar's affidavit states, "Present Petition is filed with the sole intent to delay the proceedings without there being any basis whatsoever. It is also a matter of fact that for the last 5 dates, the Applicant (Ranaut) has not been appearing before the Ld. 10th MM (Magistrate Court) on one pretext or the other."

Earlier, in an appeal, Kangana claimed that the Andheri metropolitan magistrate's court initiated proceedings against her by relying only on the police's report and did not examine witnesses independently. After Javed Akhtar had filed a complaint against her back in November 2020, the police had stated in its report that an offence was made out on the face of it and further probe was needed after which the court initiated criminal proceedings against Ranaut and issued a summon to her in February 2021.

The plea had stated, "The metropolitan magistrate did not use his own powers to conduct an inquiry but instead blatantly used the police machinery to collect the signed witness statements...which is completely unheard of. It was likely that the witnesses were influenced by the police and the magistrate should have recorded evidence of witnesses under oath to "establish if an actual case was made out." But her plea over Akhtar's defamation suit against her was rejected.

Credits: Filmi Beat