Former Team India cricket captain M.S. Dhoni is facing a defamation suit filed by two ex-business partners in the Delhi High Court. The defamation plea is scheduled for a hearing on January 18 before Justice Prathiba M. Singh.
Plaintiffs Mihir Diwakar and his wife Soumya Das, former business associates of Dhoni, have approached the high court seeking a permanent injunction and damages against Dhoni, various social media platforms, and media houses. They are requesting the court to restrain them from making, publishing, or circulating defamatory, false, and malicious statements against them.
The plaintiffs want the defendants to be restrained from damaging their reputation in connection with the alleged false allegations made by Dhoni regarding purported illegal gains of Rs 15 crores and a breach of a 2017 contract, as stated in the plaint.
In response to this, Dhoni has filed a criminal case against Diwakar and Das, claiming they duped him of approximately Rs 16 crore by not honouring a contract to establish cricket academies. This information was provided by Dhoni’s lawyer, and the case has been filed in a lower court in Ranchi against the two directors of Aarka Sports, a sports management company.
Dhoni’s representatives have stated that they filed a criminal case on behalf of the cricketer in a competent court in Ranchi against Aarka Sports directors Mihir Diwakar and Soumya Das under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.