Defamation case filed against MS Dhoni by ex-business partners, hearing on Jan 18

Two former business partners of ex-Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni have filed a defamation case in the Delhi High Court against the cricketer, PTI reported on Tuesday.

The defamation case has been filed by Dhoni’s former business partners Mihir Diwakar and his wife Soumya Das. Notably, Dhoni previously filed a criminal case against both of them for duping him of over ₹15 crore.

The couple has now approached the high court seeking a permanent injunction and damages against Dhoni, several social media platforms and media houses. It has sought they be restrained from making, publishing, circulating per se defamatory, ex facie false and malicious statements against them, according to PTI.

The defamation plea against Dhoni will come up for hearing on January 18 before a bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh.

In their plea, Dhoni’s former business partner has urged the court to restrain him from damaging their reputation concerning the “false allegations” allegedly made by Dhoni relating to purported illegal gains of ₹15 crores from him and breach of a 2017 contract.

Dhoni had filed the case against Diwakar and Soumya Vishwas, who are directors of a sports management company ‘Aarka Sports’, in a lower court in Ranchi.

In 2017, the two accused had approached Dhoni to establish cricket academies in India and abroad in the cricketer’s name, Dhoni’s lawyer Dayanand Singh said. According to the agreement, Dhoni was to receive the full franchise fee and profits were to be shared on a 70:30 basis between the cricketer and the partners. However, later on, the accused began setting up academies without informing Dhoni and did not make any payments to him, Singh said.

The cricketer also served legal notices to the accused but to no avail.

“MS Dhoni revoked his authority on August 15, 2021. Despite this, they continued to set up academies in around eight to ten locations…We served them legal notices twice for violating the agreement norms. They duped MS Dhoni of more than ₹15 crore,” the lawyer told agencies.

The criminal case was filed on October 27 last year under Sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). On Friday, Simant Lohani, who was authorised by Dhoni, recorded his statement before the first-class judicial magistrate court, reported PTI.

The couple were friends with Dhoni and Diwakar had even played in the Ranji Trophy with the former Indian captain.