Ex-Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni also moved the court to issue summons against Kumar for allegedly violating a restraining order that Dhoni received from the court a number of years ago.
Dhoni had filed a civil lawsuit against G Sampath Kumar, the then Inspector-General of Police, to permanently restrain him from taking Dhoni’s name in connection with the match-fixing and spot-fixing scandals that took place in 2014, and received a positive verdict from the bench in the form of an interim order.
However, Kumar subsequently filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court of India, alleging Dhoni’s involvement in the scandals, and proceeded to berate some members of the judiciary and senior counsel representing the then Indian skipper. Dhoni had also requested the court to announce damages amounting to Rs.100 crore, but that motion was not granted.
When the matter was brought to the Madras High Court’s attention, the Court placed it on its docket in December 2021. Dhoni then preferred the current contempt application on October 11 this year after gaining consent from Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram on July 18 this year to submit the contempt application to persecute Sampath Kumar for his purported action of making remarks against the judiciary in violation of the court’s interim order passed in 2014.
Dhoni was caught in the middle of a huge storm during the match-fixing scandal that rocked the cricketing world. Stunning evidence came to light which suggested that former pacer S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, and Ankeet Chavan of the Rajasthan Royals had all accepted huge amounts of money to spot-fix games in order to make illict gains in the betting industry.
Upon further investigation, it came to officials’ knowledge that the franchise’s co-owner Raj Kundra was a part of the huge sham, and members of the Chennai Super Kings management, including co-owner Gurunath Meiyappan were hand-in-glove with the operation. Fingers were also pointed at Narayanaswami Srinivasan, who is the managing director of India Cements, which owns the CSK.
Srinivasan, who also held various positions of power during the time, including the post of the chairman of the ICC, BCCI president, and president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, was accused of a ‘clear conflict of interest’ and many alleged his involvement in the scandal.
In another damning piece of evidence, Indian skipper at the time, Dhoni was also tied to the case after it was revealed that Dhoni was also the vice-president of marketing at India Cements. This connection led many to speculate that Captain Cool could have been involved in the operation.
However, Dhoni’s alleged involvement was quashed by competent authorities in due course of the law, but the veteran was repeatedly targeted by G Sampath Kumar, which was why the former lodged a civil lawsuit against him, demanding Rs.100 Crore in damages.
The matter has been taken up again, after Dhoni alleged that Kumar acted in contempt of the court, filing an affidavit in front of the Supreme Court while making allegedly distasteful remarks against the judiciary and senior counsel and also for violating the interim restraining order ratified by the Court. The two parties will appear before the court in the near future.
