CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has sentenced a retired IPS officer, G Sampath Kumar, who unearthed the IPL betting and match-fixing racket in 2013, to fifteen days imprisonment in connection with a criminal contempt case filed by cricketer MS Dhoni.
A division bench of Justices SS Sundar and Sunder Mohan passed the orders on Friday. However, the bench suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow the officer to file an appeal.
Dhoni filed the criminal contempt petition against the officer, who recently retired as Inspector General (IG) of Police, for his ‘scandalous’ and ‘contumacious’ remarks against the Supreme Court and the Madras High Court in an additional written statement filed in connection with a defamation suit filed by the cricketer.
He said the additional written statement by the Police officer, ‘scandalises’ and ‘lowers’ the authority of the Supreme Court and the High Court.
Dhoni alleged that the officer had stated the Supreme Court deviated from its focus on the rule of law and shelved the deposition kept in a certain sealed cover for reasons beyond comprehension.
Moreover, he had said it was unfortunate that the apex court, for reasons best known to it, chose to keep in a sealed cover a select portion of the report of Justice Mudgal Committee, and that needed to be probed by an SIT.
He sought the court to punish the Police officer as per the permission granted by the Advocate General (AG) under section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
Sampath Kumar, while serving as Superintendent of Police, Q Branch of Tamil Nadu Police, unearthed the IPL betting racket in 2013, while probing some other complaints. Later, the probe was handed to the CB-CID and the shocking revelations of the Police on match-fixing by certain players shook the nation, particularly the cricket lovers.
Since the IPS officer made some comments linking Dhoni to match-fixing, he sued him for defamation and sought damages of Rs. 100 crore from the officer and Zee Media.
The officer had to face action, including suspension from service, following certain allegations made against him regarding the conduct of the probe.