Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly have found themselves in trouble as the Madurai bench of Madras High Court has issued notices to the prominent names of Indian cricket for promoting and endorsing fantasy league apps.
Kohli along with Actress Tamannah Bhatia are the brand ambassadors for Mobile Premier League, while former India captains Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni, and former Aussie all-rounder Shane Watson also featured as brand ambassadors for fantasy leagues like Dream 11, MPL and My11Circle app.
It is being said that the Madurai bench of Madras High Court consisting of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi issued the notices to Kohli, Ganguly, actors Prakash Raj, Tammana Bhatia, Rana, and Sudip Khan for their involvement in online sports app advertisements, as well as other such apps.
The bench accused the owners of these apps of using celebrities for the sake of earning crores and asked the above-named celebrities to respond to the notice by November 19.
The bench asked, “The apps are in the name of IPL teams such as Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, and some apps are also in the name of state’s names. Are these teams playing on behalf of the state?”
Noteworthy, the case was filed by an advocate Mohammed Rizvi after some youths died by suicide in the state after losing money by playing matches in such online gambling apps during IPL 2020.
Earlier in August 2020, a petition to arrest Kohli for promoting online gambling was filed in the Madras High Court after several suicides among youth emerged in Tamil Nadu due to gambling.
(With NEWS18 Inputs)
