How have news reports on MS Dhoni complaint defamed you? Delhi High Court to cricketer's former business partner

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked cricketer MS Dhoni's former business partner Mihir Diwakar and Diwakar's wife Soumya Das (plaintiffs) to set out specific allegations against media houses who allegedly defamed them after Dhoni had filed a cheating complaint against them. .Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the order after advocate Siddhant Kumar appeared for news agency ANI and argued that the platform only reported the fact that a complaint had been filed by Dhoni against Diwakar and Das.Kumar further said that the defamation case filed by Diwakar and Das is not maintainable before Delhi High Court since all the events in relation to the complaint happened at Ranchi. The Court adjourned the case to April 3. .Diwakar and his wife Soumya Das (plaintiffs) approached the High Court to restrain Dhoni and people acting on his behalf from making defamatory allegations against them in relation to an alleged breach of a 2017 contract.The contract was entered into between Dhoni and Aarka Sports Management, a company owned by the Diwakars. The contract was for establishing cricket academies in India and globally..In their suit, Diwakar and Das alleged that Dhoni and people acting on his behalf made defamatory allegations against Diwakar and Das that they had duped Dhoni of nearly ₹15 crores by not honouring the contract to establish cricket academies.Diwakar, a former cricketer himself who represented India at the Under-19 World Cup in 2000, said that even before a court could give any substantive finding on the issue, Dhoni's lawyer Dayanand Sharma conducted a press conference on January 6, 2024, making allegations against Diwakar and Das.These allegations were widely reported in the media which tarnished the image of the plaintiffs, the suit said.Therefore, it was prayed that a direction be issued to restrain Dhoni and people acting on his behalf from making any defamatory allegations against the plaintiffs.The plaintiffs also sought directions to X (formerly Twitter) as well Google, YouTube, Meta (Facebook) and a host of news platforms to take down the allegedly defamatory articles/posts against Diwakar and Das..Senior Advocate Satvik Verma appeared for Diwakar and Das and argued that he is not citing any order against fair reporting or reporting of the case before the Ranchi Court but against news platforms who have already pronounced his clients guilty of cheating Dhoni.Verma referred to some of the headlines and said that they paint Diwakar and Das as thugs and cheats.He said Diwakar has also been a cricketer at international level and runs cricket coaching academies that have nothing to do with Dhoni.Advocate Shekhar Kumar entered appearance for Dhoni and the Court asked Diwakar's counsel to share the suit copy with him..Dhoni had earlier filed a criminal case in Ranchi against Diwakar and Das for alleged violation of the contract signed in 2017 for running cricket academies and sports complexes globally under the names ‘MS Dhoni Cricket Academy’, ‘MS Dhoni Sports Academy’ or ‘MS Dhoni Sports Complex’The criminal complaint was filed for offences under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Ranchi District Court.Dhoni alleged that even after he revoked his letter of authorisation, Diwakar and Das opened many cricket academies under the names mentioned in the contract.