IPS officer jailed over contempt plea filed by MS Dhoni in connection with IPL 2014 betting scam

The Madras High Court on Friday sentenced Indian Police Service (IPS) officer G Sampath Kumar to 15 days imprisonment. The action was taken in consideration of the petition filed by former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni. The legendary cricketer accused the officer of making derogatory remarks against the Supreme Court and the Madras HC.

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It was in 2014 that Dhoni filed a Rs 100 crore defamation case against Kumar, who initially handled the 2013 IPL betting case. The suit was in response to allegations made by Kumar, linking the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain to the scandal.

According to Dhoni, Kumar had accused the Supreme Court of deviating from the rule of law. The officer also alleged that the judicial authority had a motive for withholding certain documents from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

“He (Sampath Kumar) has stated that the Supreme Court deviated its focus on the rule of law and shelved the deposition of the Justice Mudgal Committee (constituted to probe 2013 match-fixing allegations) and kept it in a sealed cover for reasons he failed to comprehend,” Dhoni said.

However, a bench of Justices SS Sundar and Sundar Mohan, who sentenced Kumar, stayed the sentence for 30 days to give the officer an opportunity to file an appeal to the SC. 

For the unversed, the match-fixing scandal led to Rajasthan Royals (RR) and CSK being suspended for two seasons in July 2015.