MS Dhoni Petition: The contempt petition filed by former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was heard in the Madras High Court on Friday. In the case, the court sentenced IPS officer Ji Sampat Kumar to 15 days in jail. The case is related to the allegation of betting in IPL. Dhoni had filed a defamation case in 2014 over his name being used in IPL betting. MS Dhoni was represented by lawyer PR Raman. G Sampath was represented by advocate Perumbulavil Radhakrishnan. A bench of Justices SS Sundar and Sundar Mohan suspended the sentence for thirty days to allow Kumar to file an appeal.
Dhoni had filed a petition on defamation case
Dhoni filed a defamation suit in the High Court against Zee Media, Kumar and others over alleged malicious statements and news reports. It was being said that he was involved in betting and match fixing of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in 2013. A compensation of Rs 100 crore was demanded in the defamation case. Dhoni had filed a case of contempt of court regarding the comments made in the counter affidavit filed by IPS officer Sampat Kumar on this case. There were demands to punish him for this comment.
High Court on defamatory statement
The former Indian cricket team captain sought to restrain the defendants, including Kumar, who initially investigated the IPL betting scam, from issuing and publishing defamatory statements against him related to the issue. The high court had earlier ordered an interim investigation and restrained Zee, Kumar and others from making defamatory statements against Dhoni. Subsequently, Xie and others filed their written statements in response to the defamation suit. Following the written statements, Dhoni filed an application claiming that Kumar had made more defamatory statements in his written submissions, and thus prayed that contempt of court proceedings be initiated against Kumar.
Court approves Dhoni’s appeal
During the hearing, Dhoni had told the court that he was not interested in filing a contempt case against Sampath, as Sampath had apologized for his comments. However, Sampath refused to do so and argued that the contempt petition against him was not maintainable. Then Dhoni had handed over copies of the defamatory statements made by Sampath against him and the Supreme Court. On examining the statements, the Court remarked that they were indeed defamatory.
Source: newstrack.com”