Mumbai Court Clears Javed Akhtar Of Extortion Charges In Kangana Ranaut's Case Involving Hrithik Roshan

Javed Akhtar Extortion Case: In a major development, a Mumbai court has dismissed the extortion charges against Javed Akhtar in the case involving actress Kangana Ranaut and actor Hrithik Roshan. The legal trouble dates back to 2016 when Akhtar had invited Kangana and her sister Rangoli Chandel to his house.

During a television interview in 2020, Kangana Ranaut, however, made allegations against Akhtar and claimed that he had threatened her for speaking out about the issue. She had accused Akhtar of pressuring her to apologize to Hrithik Roshan and also mentioned that he warned her of dire consequences if she didn't comply. Subsequently, she filed extortion charges against the lyricist.

COURT'S RULING IN FAVOUR OF JAVED AKHTAR

However, the recent court ruling stated that asking for a written apology does not constitute "valuable security". A magistrate was quoted as saying by India Today, "Asking a person to give a written apology will not come under the definition of valuable security....because no legal right is created, extended, transferred, restricted, extinguished or released."

Kangana's plea alleged that "the accused, with a malafide intention and ulterior motive, called her and her sister Rangoli Chandel at his house in Juhu in the month of March 2016 and criminally intimidated and threatened the complainant (Kangana Ranaut) as well as forced her to tender a written apology to the co-star thereby forcefully seeking to create a document (valuable security) in favour of her co-star."

Prior to this, Javed Akhtar had filed a defamation lawsuit against Kangana Ranaut in response to her claims made during a 2020 interview after the tragic demise of Sushant Singh Rajput.

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST JAVED AKHTAR BY KANGANA RANAUT IN HER 2020 INTERVIEW

Kangana Ranaut in her 2020 interview was quoted as saying, "Once Javed Akhtar called me to his house and told me Rakesh Roshan (father of Hrithik Roshan) and his family are very big people. If you don't apologize to them, you will have nowhere to go. They will put you in jail, and eventually, the only path would be that of destruction... you will commit suicide. These were his words. He shouted and yelled at me. I was shaking in his house."