Madras High Court sentences Tamil Nadu IPS officer in contempt case filed by Dhoni

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday sentenced IPS officer G Sampath Kumar to 15-day imprisonment in a contempt of court case filed against him by former Indian cricket skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. 

 However, the court suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow the police officer to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court. A division bench of justices S S Sundar and Sunder Mohan suspended the sentence for 30 days without Sampath Kumar asking for it. 

The criminal contempt petition against Sampath Kumar was filed by Dhoni through senior lawyer P S Raman after Tamil Nadu’s top law officer, R Shunmugasundaram, granted permission for the same. 

Dhoni had sought permission to file the contempt petition against the IPS officer for his outrageous statements on two institutions of the judiciary. 

The statements by the officer were made in response to a defamation suit that Dhoni filed against him for linking him with the 2013 IPL betting scandal. The officer had questioned the Supreme Court and the Madras High Court and made “scandalous and contumacious” allegations in his written affidavit, Dhoni said, and sought action against him.