Chennai: The Zee Media Corporation Limited informed the Madras High Court that Indian cricket team captain M.S. Dhoni is trying to gag the media from discussing/ commenting on the allegation of match fixing and betting, which is a matter of national importance.
Jayakaran Winfred, executive (legal) in the Zee Media Corporation Ltd. (Zee news channel) stated this in his counter affidavit filed to the defamation suit where Dhoni sought Rs 100 crore damages. Justice S. Tamilvanan before whom the counter was filed, posted further hearing of the case to next week.
Mr Jayakaran submitted that the Zee TV did not target Dhoni but it had only telecast the deposition of G. Sampath Kumar, IPS, before the Justice Mudgal Committee, constituted to probe into the allegations of betting and match fixing of IPL matches.
“Dhoni has not come to this court with clean hands. Dhoni has suppressed important information from this court. Dhoni ought to have filed the report of Nilay Dutta, one of the members of the committee, but did not do so as the said member has recommended further inquiry by an independent investigating agency in the matter of Dhoni’s batting performance on May 12, 2013 in the match against Rajasthan Royals,” he said.
The Mudgal report rejected the deposition of Dhoni that Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI president N. Srinivasan, had nothing to do with the cricket affairs of Chennai Super Kings and was a mere cricket enthusiast supporting CSK.
The report also raised serious questions on the investigation conducted by the CB-CID, Chennai. It observed that the issue had not been investigated by Chennai police despite availability of such information and called the conduct of the police curious, he added.
