Kangana Gets Bail In Defamation Case, FIR Over Farmers' Protest Tweet Also Dropped

Kangana Ranaut FIR Dropped: Actor Kangana Ranaut has now been granted bail in the Javed Akhtar defamation case. The Andheri Magistrate court gave her temporary relief.

Earlier, Kangana Ranaut had moved court in order to cancel the bailable warrant the court had issued, after lyricist Javed Akhtar had filed a case against her. She has now been granted bail upon furnishing a surety of ₹15,000 and a cash surety of ₹20,000.

On March 1, the court had ordered a bailable warrant against Kangana Ranaut after she didn't respond to the summons of the court. "For willful absence of accused (Ranaut) without any justified reasons, despite service of summons, issue bailable warrant of ₹1,000 against accused Kangana Ranaut," Magistrate R R Khan said in the order.

"As accused (Ranaut) has voluntarily remained absent without any justified reason despite service of summons and even not filed any exemption application, therefore, as per law issuance of a bailable warrant of ₹1,000 against accused will be justified," it added.

What is the Javed Akhtar defamation case?

On November 3, Javed Akhtar had filed a criminal complaint against the actor for making statements in an attempt to defame him. He said that Ranaut did so after giving an interview with Republic media's anchor Arnab Goswami. He claimed that Ranaut had made baseless allegations against him, by linking him to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. He accused her of "immaculate reputation by falsely attributing statements to him." A complaint was then registered through Akhtar's advocate Jai Bharadwaj under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code.

This is what Akhtar's complaint said about his reputation: "The complainant is one of the most senior artists in the film industry with his successful career spanning over more than 55 years, which in itself is a rare achievement. Apart from this, he was also nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha during the period March 2010 to March 2016."

Karnataka HC quashes FIR on Farmers' Protest Tweets

On Thursday, the Karnataka HC quashed an order passed by a Magistrate in the state, asking the police to register an FIR against Kangana Ranaut. The order was based on her tweets regarding the farmers' protests.

"Nowhere the Magistrate made any reference that he has perused averments in the complaint and whether it amounts to an offence. Matter has to be remitted back to the trial court to look into whether averments made in the complainant amount to offence", Justice Sandesh observed in the order.

The complainant had ordered for an FIR to be registered against her under Sections 153A, 504, 108 of the Indian Penal Code for comparing farmers to 'terrorists'.

Earlier, Kangana Ranaut had filed a petition at the Karnataka HC to drop the order of registering an FIR against her.