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A Mumbai court issued on Monday a bailable warrant against actor Kangana Ranaut after she failed to appear before the court despite being summoned.

The warrant was issued after lyricist Javed Akhtar had filed a complaint against the Tanu Weds Manu star for defaming him on national television. A bailable warrant means that Ranaut can approach a court to get bail before being arrested in the case.

Akhtar told the court that Ranaut dragged his name while referring to a "coterie" existing in Bollywood, following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June last year.

In July, Ranaut gave an interview to a TV channel and made statements “without appearing to have any direct personal knowledge of the circumstances around his death...In what appears to be a clear campaign to malign and tarnish the reputation of the complainant (Akhtar) in the eyes of the general public,” Akhtar's complaint read.

It was said that Akhtar had built his reputation from scratch in the last 55 years, and Ranaut's baseless comments on national television and social media against him were a threat to his years of hard work.

Despite the Queen star's lawyer pointing out that the procedure was not followed in the filing of the complaint and so the legal process and summoning Ranaut was not right, Magistrate RR Khan issued the bailable warrant stating, "You are at liberty to approach any court."