Arrest warrant against Dhoni over ‘morphed’ photo

Suresh Dharur

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Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, January 8

A local court in Anantapur town in Andhra Pradesh today issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Mahendra Singh Dhoni for “hurting religious sentiments”. The case dates back to 2013, when a business newsmagazine, Business Today, published a morphed photograph of Dhoni on its cover, depicting him as Lord Vishnu.

The fact that the photograph is morphed and created on a computer is evident because Dhoni is shown with six arms in it. He has clearly not “posed” for it. However, the Anantapur Judicial First Class Magistrate has directed the police to produce Dhoni in the court on February 25.

In the photograph, published in the April 13, 2013, edition of the magazine, Dhoni was shown holding several commercial products, including a shoe. The title of the story read "God of Big Deals”.

Dhoni, who is currently in Australia to play the limited-overs series against their team, has been asked to be present in court on February 25 in connection with the case. The last match of the series will be played on January 31.

The non-bailable warrant follows a petition filed by a local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader, Shyam Sunder, who claimed that the portrayal of Dhoni as the deity was hurtful to Hindu sentiments. "I had gone to court as the picture hurt Hindu sentiments," Sunder told reporters.

The court had issued the summons to Dhoni, but he allegedly refused to accept them and they were returned three times. In 2014, the court took a serious note of this and issued a bailable warrant, asking the police to bring him before the court on July 16 that year.

Meanwhile, Dhoni’s lawyer Rajneesh Chopra has stated that the issuing of the non-bailable warrant against his client was “erroneous”.

He also said that Dhoni had never received the summons that he has been accused of ignoring. “Mahendra Singh Dhoni has utmost respect for the judiciary but the fact of the matter is that he has personally never received any summons with respect to the present case; therefore the order appears to be erroneous," Chopra said in a statement.

"Even as such, proceedings in a similar matter pending before the Hon'ble District Court of Bengaluru, Karnataka, has already been stayed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India,” he added. “In this matter, accordingly we will approach the courts and seek appropriate directions thereto.”

Dhoni’s manager, Arun Pandey, has said: “Neither did he pose for the picture, nor were we aware of such a picture being published.”