Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been sued for defamation by his former business partners Mihir Diwakar and his wife Soumya Das. Both of them have filed a case against Dhoni in Delhi High Court demanding permanent injunction and damages. The suit has been filed to direct Dhoni to stop publishing any defamatory statements against him in the media.

Meanwhile, Dhoni’s lawyer submitted before the court that the defamation case against the cricketer is not maintainable. Following which, a single judge bench of Justice Pratibha Singh refused to pass any interim order against the Chennai Super Kings captain and several media houses and social media platforms restraining them from posting any alleged false defamatory material against the plaintiff. Can be prevented from doing or publishing. The case has also been adjourned to April 3, 2024.

Today i.e. on January 29, Singh directed Diwakar and Das to mention the allegations against the media houses which defamed him so badly. The court asked the complainants to explain how the news regarding the cheating complaint by Dhoni had defamed them. Advocate Siddhant Kumar, representing news agency ANI, argued that the media house published factual reports stating that a complaint was filed by Dhoni against Diwakar and Das.

The suit has been filed against the cricketer as well as Facebook’s parent company Meta, X (formerly Twitter), Google, YouTube and 30 media houses and web portals.

Dhoni defamed Diwakar and Soumya

Dhoni had accused both of them of defrauding him of around Rs 16 crore by not honoring the contract of setting up a cricket academy in 2017. Since then, both have denied the fraud allegations. Diwakar and Soumya had filed a petition in the high court seeking directions to stop Dhoni and others from making defamatory allegations against them in connection with the alleged breach of contract.

Senior advocate Satvik Verma, who is fighting the case on behalf of Diwakar and Soumya, has said that the case is still going on but despite this the media house has held both of them guilty which is not right.