Defamation suit filed against Dhoni by former business partners

Two ex-business partners of Mahendra Singh Dhoni have filed a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against the former India captain.

The defamation plea is listed for hearing on January 18 before Justice Prathiba M Singh.

Plaintiffs and former business partners Mihir Diwakar and his wife Soumya Das approached the high court seeking a permanent injunction and damages against Dhoni, several social media platforms and media houses and thereby restraining them from making, publishing, circulating per se defamatory, ex facie false and malicious statements against them.

The defendants be restrained from damaging the reputation of the plaintiffs in relation to the false allegations allegedly made by Dhoni relating to purported illegal gains of Rs 15 crores from him and breach of a 2017 contract, the plaint said.

Recently, Dhoni filed a criminal case against Diwakar and Das claiming that they have duped him of around Rs 16 crore by not honouring a contract to establish cricket academies, according to his lawyer.

The case has been filed in a lower court in Ranchi against two directors of Aarka Sports, a sports management company.

Dhoni's representatives said they have 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.