Mumbai: Submitting that the magistrate jumped to conclusions in a hasty and inappropriate manner which has resulted in grave miscarriage of justice, veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar moved the sessions court against a lower court order summoning him for charges relating to criminal intimidation and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman following a complaint by Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut in 2021.

The plea submitted by advocates Jay Bharadwaj and Harsh Ramchandani before the Dindoshi sessions court on Monday also said the magistrate failed to appreciate that the complaint was hopelessly time barred as the maximum time for filing it for an offence punishable up to three years imprisonment, is three years from the date of the alleged incident. It said while the alleged incident is from March 2016, Ranaut had filed the complaint before the magistrate’s court about five years later in 2021. The court is likely to hear the plea on August 8.

In an order pronounced on July 24, a magistrate’s court had directed Akhtar to appear before it on August 5. The court had dropped charges relating to extortion. In her 2021 complaint, through her advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, Ranaut had submitted that in a public dispute with her costar, Hrithik Roshan, Akhtar had called her sister and her to his house in Juhu and threatened her and forced her to tender a written apology.

In his plea against the order issuing summons, Akhtar said the magistrate had relied on Ranaut’s contradictory statements and on the version provided by her sister, an interested witness, Rangoli Chandel. “…Magistrate failed to appreciate that it is rather a matter of common sense and logical presumption that… Rangoli Chandel being the real sister of Respondent No 2 (Ranaut) is bound to support Kangana Ranaut and her verification statement cannot be believed by any stretch of imagination,” Akhtar’s plea said. The plea further said she did not produce any independent witness who could have corroborated her story.

Akhtar too had filed a defamation complaint against Ranaut in November 2020 before Andheri magistrate’s court. Referring to this, Akhtar said Ranaut’s 2021 complaint was filed only as a counter-blast to harass him. His plea said this was also evident from the fact that Ranaut never pursued her own complaint and appeared for the first time before the court only in July 2022.

“The Respondent No 2 while on one hand claiming that the matter is of grave urgency, took 12 adjournments before finally recording her verification statement…,” Akhtar’s plea said.