Actor Preity Zinta on Friday filed a criminal defamation case against a city tabloid holding its printer, publisher and editor responsible for publishing the text of an alleged telephonic conversation between her and actor Salman Khan that had "sexual overtones".

The case was filed in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dilip Joshi who has posted the matter for hearing on December 13.

Zinta had refused to speak on the matter when the story broke out in July in Mid day, saying she did not want to comment until the authenticity of the tapes was proved.

A police report had recently declared the tapes as "not genuine" as the voices did not match those of Salman and Zinta. Following this, the actress decided to file a defamation complaint.