Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian and actor Kangana Ranaut made an appearance at a Bathinda court on Monday to attend proceedings for a defamation case. Her presence was secured under tight security arrangements.
The court had previously dismissed Ranaut’s request to appear via video conference, with Judicial Magistrate First Class Lakhbir Singh mandating her personal appearance on October 27.
The defamation complaint was filed by Mahinder Kaur, a 73-year-old resident of Bathinda. Kaur alleges that Ranaut defamed her on social media platform X by misidentifying her as Bilkis Bano, a Shaheen Bagh protester, and suggesting that women like her could be hired to protest for a nominal fee during the 2020-21 farmer protests against the now-repealed farm laws.
This is not the first time the matter has been addressed by the courts. A Bathinda judicial magistrate had issued summons to Ranaut in February 2022. Subsequently, she challenged this order in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking to quash the defamation complaint and the summons. However, the High Court found no merit in her petition and dismissed it.
Ranaut then approached the Supreme Court, which also declined to entertain her plea on September 12. Her legal counsel later withdrew the special leave petition (SLP). Separately, in 2024, Ranaut was involved in an incident where she was allegedly slapped by a CISF constable at the Chandigarh airport following controversial remarks she had made regarding the farmers’ protests.