The court had last September directed the BJP MP from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh to be present in person and rejected her plea to appear via video conference.
Security was beefed up in and around the Bathinda court complex ahead of the actor’s appearance. She came escorted by security men and local police.
The court complex was corralled behind police barricades.
The defamation case stems from a retweet the actor made with her own comment on Mahinder Kaur, the 73-year-old complainant from Bahadurgarh Jandian village in Punjab’s Bathinda district.
The comment was made in 2021 during the farmers’ protest against the now-repealed farm laws. Ranaut, who wore a saree and sported sunglasses, reached the court complex around 2 pm. Speaking to reporters afterwards, she asserted that she had made no comments against any individual.
“Whatever misunderstanding happened with the family of Mahinder (Kaur) ji, I gave a message to her husband for ‘mata ji’ about how she was the victim of a misunderstanding,” she told reporters afterwards.
Mahinder Kaur was not present in the court, but her husband was.
Ranaut said, “Never in my dreams could I imagine this, the way this controversy was created. Every ‘mata’, be she from Punjab or Himachal, is respectable to me.”
Asked whether she acknowledged that she committed a mistake unknowingly, she replied that if one looked at the case properly, there was nothing from her side.
“There was a retweet, which was used as a meme. I have also spoken and discussed this with the husband of Mahinder ji,” she said.
There were many women in that meme, and no comments were made against any individual, she asserted.
Somebody had made a comment on the meme about many agitations taking place across the country, she said.
Ranaut, however, said she regretted the misunderstanding that arose from the post.
Mahinder Kaur’s counsel Raghubir Singh Beniwal said the court granted bail to Ranaut on a bond furnished by her father.
Beniwal said Ranaut filed another plea, seeking permanent exemption from personal appearance in the court, which he opposed.
Beniwal said after the court asked the actor whether she wanted to say anything, she said she wanted to apologise to the complainant, claiming that her post was not meant to target anybody.
When the court asked Mahinder Kaur’s husband, Labh Singh, he told the court that he could not decide on his own and would discuss the matter with others before taking a call on whether an apology can be accepted, the counsel said.
The court has posted the matter for November 24.
In a complaint filed in Bathinda in January 2021, Mahinder Kaur alleged that the BJP MP defamed her by identifying her wrongly as Bilkis Bano, an activist who hit the headlines during the 2020 Shaheen Bagh protest.
Mahinder Kaur said the actor made “false imputations and remarks” against her in the retweet by comparing her with “dadi”, who was part of the Shaheen Bagh protest.
She said she had been a part of dharnas and demonstrations since the beginning of the farmers’ protest.
Despite her old age, she, along with the others, went to Delhi to participate in the agitation.
Mahinder Kaur said she absolutely had no connection with the Shaheen Bagh woman who featured in Time magazine.
Ranaut moved the apex court challenging an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which refused to quash the complaint against her.
“There are specific allegations against the petitioner, who is a celebrity, that false and defamatory imputations by her in the retweet have dented the respondent’s reputation and lowered her in her own estimation, as also in the eyes of others. Therefore, filing of the complaint to vindicate her rights cannot be termed mala fide,” the high court said in its August 1 order, dismissing Ranaut’s plea.
However, the apex court, on September 12, told Ranaut that it was not a simple retweet and that the actor-politician “added spice” to what was existing.
Ranaut then withdrew the plea.
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