Who Is G Sampath Kumar? IPS Officer Sentenced To Jail For Defaming Mahendra Singh Dhoni

NEW DELHI: The Madras High Court has sentenced IPS officer G Sampath Kumar to 15 days of simple imprisonment in a contempt of court case filed by former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. A division bench comprising Justices S S Sundar and Sunder Mohan passed the order while responding to a petition filed by Dhoni in which he had accused the IPS officer of making derogatory remarks against both the Supreme Court and the Madras HC in connection with the 2013 IPL betting case.

The bench, however, suspended the operation of the sentence for 30 days to enable Sampath Kumar to prefer an appeal against the sentence.

2013 IPL Betting Case

The case dates back to 2014 when Dhoni had filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Kumar, who had initially handled the 2013 IPL betting case. The suit was in response to allegations made by Kumar, linking Dhoni to the IPL betting scandal.

Kumar, in a written statement, had accused the SC of deviating from the rule of law and had questioned the handling of the Justice Mudgal Committee report, which was established to investigate the 2013 match-fixing allegations. He had also alleged that the SC had motives in withholding certain documents from the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Dhoni, in his petition, had highlighted these statements as ''scandalous and contumacious'', directly attacking the integrity of the judicial system. The petition, filed through senior counsel P R Raman, urged the court to take strict action against Kumar for his remarks. The Advocate General of Tamil Nadu, R Shunmugasundaram, after reviewing the case, granted permission to Dhoni to move the criminal contempt of court petition.

Who Is G Sampath Kumar?

G Sampath Kumar is a Tamil Nadu-based IPS officer who investigated the 2013 betting scandal. He was taken off the probe after it was revealed that some bookies gave him money to get their names out of the case. However, the suspended officer was cleared by a court citing a lack of evidence in 2019.