Former team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has filed a criminal case against his two ex-business partners for duping him of over ₹15 crore. According to reports, the case has been filed in a lower court in Ranchi against Mihir Diwakar and Soumya Vishwas, who are directors of a sports management company ‘Aarka Sports’.

In 2017, the two accused had approached Dhoni to establish cricket academies in India and abroad in the cricketer’s name, Dhoni’s lawyer Dayanand Singh said. According to the agreement, Dhoni was to receive the full franchise fee and profits were to be shared on a 70:30 basis between the cricketer and the partners. However, later on, the accused began setting up academies without informing Dhoni and did not make any payments to him, Singh said.

The cricketer also served legal notices to the accused but to no avail.

“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.

Notably, the accused were friends with Dhoni and had even played the Ranji Trophy together.

The criminal case was filed on October 27 last year under Sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). On Friday, Simant Lohani, who was authorised by Dhoni, recorded his statement before the first-class judicial magistrate court, reported PTI.

(With inputs from agencies)