New Delhi: In a huge relief to one-day cricket captain M.S. Dhoni, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed all further criminal proceedings which was initiated against him in a court in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh for a cover photo published in Business Today in 2013 showing him as Lord Vishnu.
A Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra stayed the proceedings on a petition from Dhoni seeking transfer of the case from Anantapur to a court in Bengaluru.
The court which has already stayed the proceedings against Arun Poorie of Business Today which published the photo of Lord Vishnu tagged Dhoni’s appeal for hearing it together.
A complaint was filed in Anantapur alleging that by portraying Dhoni as Lord Vishnu, the magazine as well as the former Test captain has hurt the religious sentiments. In his transfer petition Dhoni said that the entire complaint against him was false and baseless and it was filed merely to harass the petitioner.
He submitted that the said article/ photograph is a work of art and he was not aware of the publication of his image in said fashion. Also, no remuneration was given by the publishers in lieu of publication to Dhoni.
