Mihir Diwakar and Soumya Das, former business partners of ex-India captain MS Dhoni, have filed a defamation suit against the cricketer in the Delhi High Court, as reported by PTI on Tuesday (January 16).
The defamation plea is scheduled for a hearing on January 18 under Justice Prathiba M Singh.
Diwakar and Das are seeking a permanent injunction and damages from Dhoni, social media platforms, and media houses, to prevent the publication of defamatory, false, and malicious statements against them.
The plaintiffs are also seeking to restrain the defendants from damaging their reputation based on alleged false accusations by Dhoni regarding illegal gains of Rs 15 crores and a breach of a 2017 contract.
In 2017, Diwakar purportedly entered into an agreement with Dhoni to establish a global Cricket academy. Allegedly, he failed to comply with the terms stipulated in the agreement.
According to the agreement, Aarka Sports did not fulfill its obligation to pay a franchise fee. Additionally, the share profits, as per the terms of the agreement, were reportedly not honored.
Despite receiving multiple reminders and legal notices, Aarka Sports allegedly neglected to honor the deal, prompting Dhoni to revoke the authority letter granted to the firm on August 15th, 2021.
Dhoni’s legal representative, Advocate Dayanand Singh of Vidhi Associates, asserted that they were deceived and cheated by Aarka Sports, resulting in a loss exceeding Rs 15 crore.
“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.
Earlier in the current month, Dhoni initiated legal proceedings by filing a criminal case in a Ranchi lower court against Diwakar and Das. The accusation suggests that they defrauded him of approximately Rs 16 crore by not adhering to a contract to establish cricket academies.
This legal action was taken against the directors of Aarka Sports, identified as a sports management company, invoking Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.
