Mihir Diwakar and Soumya Das, former business partners of former India skipper MS Dhoni, have filed a defamation suit against the cricketer in the Delhi High Court, PTI reported on Tuesday (January 16).

The defamation plea has been listed for hearing on January 18 under Justice Prathiba M Singh.

In this case, Diwakar and Das are seeking a permanent injunction and damages from Dhoni, social media platforms, and media houses, preventing them from publishing defamatory, false, and malicious statements against them.

They also want to restrain the defendants from hurting their reputation based on Dhoni's alleged false accusations of illegal gains of Rs 15 crores and a breach of a 2017 contract.

In 2017, Diwakar allegedly signed an agreement with Dhoni to establish a Cricket academy globally. He did not comply with the terms that were mentioned in the agreement.

As per the agreement, Aarka Sports failed to pay a franchise fee. Moreover, the share profits as per the terms of the agreement were allegedly not honoured.

Despite multiple reminders and legal notices, Aarka Sports reportedly showed negligence to honour the deal, prompting Dhoni to revoke the authority letter granted to the firm on August 15th, 2021.

Dhoni’s lawyer, Advocate Dayanand Singh of Vidhi Associates, alleged that they were deceived and cheated by Aarka Sports, which led to a loss exceeding Rs 15 crore.

“MS Dhoni revoked his authority on August 15, 2021. Despite this, they continued to set up academies in around eight to ten locations…We served them legal notices twice for violating the agreement norms. They duped MS Dhoni of more than ₹15 crore,” the lawyer told agencies.

Earlier this month, Dhoni filed a criminal case against Diwakar and Das in a Ranchi lower court, accusing them of defrauding him of approximately Rs 16 crore by failing to honour a contract to establish cricket academies.

This case was filed against the directors of Aarka Sports, a sports management company, under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.

(With PTI inputs)