Supreme Court criminal drops criminal proceedings against MS Dhoni

In a huge relief for Indian limited overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni the Supreme Court of India on Monday quashed criminal proceedings against him in the case for allegedly portraying himself as Lord Vishnu on the cover page of the Business Today Magazine.

Social activist Mr Jayakumar Hiremath was the complainant in the case who had said that MS Dhoni appeared on the cover page as Lord Vishnu, with several hands and had various objects in them one of which was a shoe. Which in his view hurt religious sentiments and thus the cricketer should be prosecuted for the same.

After receiving the complaint the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) had registered a case against the Indian skipper under section 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) along with 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Anantapur Court in Andhra Pradesh in January 2016 had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Dhoni in the case. But it was later withdrawn and a media release from his management company Rhiti Sports read, “The court that had issued a non-bailable warrant against cricketer MS Dhoni under the pretext of posing as Lord Vishnu on the cover page of Business Today magazine has today recalled the issued warrant,”

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Dhoni had moved to the Karnataka High Court requesting it to drop criminal proceedings against him, but when the court refused to do so they appealed in the Supreme Court. As it appears the magazine had used Dhoni’s picture and portrayed him as Lord Vishnu with several hands and the objects in his hands were to signify the different brands that he endorses, it is also possible that it was not in the cricketer’s knowledge that the cover would appear like that and even if it was, was never with an intention to hurt religious sentiments.