Preity Zinta will be examined as a chief witness on January 23 in a defamation case she filed against a Mumbai-based tabloid in 2005, her lawyer Sandeep Kapur said. The actress was expected to appear in the additional metropolitan magistrate's court in Girgaum, South Mumbai, Tuesday, but the matter was adjourned to January 23, her lawyer added.

Zinta had filed the case against the tabloid for publishing an article regarding an alleged taped conversation between actors Salman Khan [Images] and Aishwarya Rai [Images] in which her name was mentioned in an objectionable manner.

The tapes of the alleged telephonic conversation were later examined in 2005 by the forensic laboratory in Chandigarh, which said the voices were not that of Salman and Rai.