MS Dhoni Defamation Case: What Is It About?

The Delhi High Court has decided to inform cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni about the defamation suit filed against him before proceeding with the case.

The matter is scheduled for a hearing on Jan. 29. The plaintiffs, Diwakar and his wife Soumya Das, seek to restrain Dhoni and individuals acting on his behalf from making defamatory allegations regarding an alleged breach of a 2017 contract.

What is the content of the contract in question? What events precipitated the initiation of these legal proceedings?

In 2017, Diwakar's Aarka Sports Management Authority Pvt. entered into an agreement with Dhoni, with the aim to establish MS Dhoni Cricket Academy and sports complexes.

However, in August 2021, an email from an unknown third party claimed that the agreement had been revoked. As per Diwakar's contentions, this revocation came from an unidentified source, and as of that date, no official letter confirming the revocation had been received by him. Therefore, he considered the email invalid in legal terms.

Dhoni, through an advocate, issued a legal notice on Feb. 4, 2023, accusing Aarka of breaching the agreement. However, the notice did not provide any specifics.

Aarka promptly responded to the legal notice with a reply. But on Oct. 27, 2023, Dhoni filed a complaint in Jharkhand, claiming that Aarka cheated him of Rs 15 crore. Notably, there was no mention of this in the notice Aarka was sent in February.

Diwakar has claimed that Dhoni's counsel held a press conference making false allegations against Aarka, even as there hasn't been a court decision on the complaint. This lead to the present defamation case, which Diwakar filed on Jan. 11.

The case also names YouTube, Google and Dailymotion and a myriad of news companies, including Inshorts, India Today (Aaj Tak), Zee News, Times of India, ABP News, Hindustan Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Business Standard Pvt., NDTV India, News Nation, Odishatv.in, Sportskeeda, Cricxtasy, Navbharat Times, ANI, Live Hindustan, Patrika, DNANews, Oneindia, Dy365, Odisha Bhaskar, Cricket Addictor, VTV News (Gujarati), Pardaphash, Mediaoneonline, Latestly, Pixstory, Lokmat Times, The Federal, and Crictoday.

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