News Broadcasting
Madras HC restrains Zee Media, News Nation in defamation suit filed by MS Dhoni
MUMBAI: It’s Rs 100 crore and we aren’t talking about any Bollywood movie. It is about a defamation suit filed by Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni against two news channel networks Zee Media Corporation and News Nation and also against suspended IPS officer G Sampath Kumar.
Dhoni has filed the suit in the Madras High Court claiming that the three parties had made highly defamatory, scandalous, libelous and malicious false reports about his involvement in the IPL betting scandal.
According to a report in The Hindu, an interim order has been passed by justice S Tamilvanan restraining the two news networks from broadcasting any news linking Dhoni with the betting scam for a period of two weeks.
The reports that were broadcast by the news networks revolved around IPL team Chennai Super Kings, of which Dhoni is the captain, and his alleged involvement in match fixing, which, the suit said, has devastated his reputation and image in the eyes of millions of fans all over the world.
When contacted, Zee Media Corp CEO Alok Agrawal said, “We have done nothing wrong. The allegations are baseless. Our lawyers are working on it and we will be fighting the case till the end.”
One the other hand, the one-year old News Nation’s CEO Shailesh Kumar said he is awaiting a copy of the court’s interim order and that the news broadcaster is yet to rope in a lawyer to defend itself.
The Hindu report also said Dhoni claims the news reports were done with an intention to project him as an object of hate and ridicule.
Dhoni has also claimed a total of Rs 100 crore as damages from the three defendants.
