The Madras High Court on Monday ordered that a trial commence in what is now a 10-year-old defamation suit which was filed by former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni is seeking Rs 100 crore in damages from Zee Media Corporation, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer G Sampath Kumar, and News Nation Network for having dragged his name in the Indian Premier League betting scam.
Dhoni has told the court that he would be available for examination as well as cross-examination between October 20 and December 10 this year, according to a report in The Hindu. The report added that Justice CV Karthikeyan had appointed an advocate commissioner to record evidence from Dhoni on a “mutually convenient” premises in Chennai. The court said this was being done because the the court wanted to avoid chaos on the court premises if Dhoni was to make an appearance.
Senior counsel PR Raman submitted an sworn affidavit from Dhoni, where he has shown his intent to proceed with the trial in the defamation suit.
While Dhoni filed the suit in 2014, the trial has been pending for 11 years because of multiple applications taken out by the defending parties seeking relief.
Back in 2014, it was reported that Dhoni, in his suit, had submitted that the defendants had run defamatory and scandalous false reports since February 11, 2014.
Dhoni’s suit had mentioned how Zee Media Corporation Limited, known as Zee News, and Sudhir Chaudary, Editor and Business Head of Zee News Channel (known as the first and second defendants) in collusion with IPS officer G Sampath Kumar (the third defendant) have been telecasting and broadcasting and posting in their websites false reports insinuating that Dhoni was involved in illegal activities of betting, match fixing and spot fixing.
Similarly, News Nation (defendant no 4) had joined the tirade against Dhoni and later on went to the extent of stating that Dhoni was summoned by the Tamil Nadu police, which was also utterly false, the affidavit had stated.
