2019-08-03_Outlook

24 OutlOOk 5 August 2019

by Jeevan Prakash Sharma

and Sidharth Gulati

M

ahendra Singh dhoni is

headlining again—no, Mahi

hasn’t announced his retire-

ment from OdIs, haven’t

changed his hairstyle, or

bought another superbike.

The former Indian captain and wife

Sakshi landed in a controversy this

week vis-a-vis the debt-riddled amra-

pali Group, the realtor dhoni had

end orsed as brand ambassador some-

time ago until they fell out over all-

eged unpaid dues to the cricketer. On

Tuesday, the Supreme Court observed

that amrapali—in the dock for unfini-

shed housing projects in noida and

Greater noida—had created several

companies “to route funds” collec-

ted from homebuyers. and according

to a Supreme Court-appointed audi-

tor’s report, one of these companies—

amrapali Mahi developers Private

Limited—has Sakshi as its director,

while the other—amrapali Media Vis-

ion Private Limited—paid rs 24 crore

to rhiti Sports Management Private

Limited, a company in which dhoni

has stakes. rhiti used to manage his

commercial interests as well.

“Several companies were created only to

route the funds and transactions consist-

ing of office boys, persons with no income

and dummy companies in which family

members and relatives were inducted as

members only for few transactions....” the

court said in its ruling that caught Dhoni

on the wrong foot. Also, the court directed

state-run builder NBCC to take over all

unfinished Amrapali projects.

As the controversy raged, Rhiti lawyer

Ashwani Gupta clarified that the auditor’s

report is “devoid of proper information”

and “neither the transactions nor the

company is sham”. He says in a statement

to Outlook that “the question of siphoning

funds does not arise because Rhiti pro-

vided all professional services as per

agreements and pre-agreed endorsement

fee received from Amrapali was paid to

relevant endorsers”. Rhiti, instead, acc-

uses Amrapali of owing approximately

Rs 40 crore and that it had filed a suit to

recover the amount.

Dhoni had made similar accusations

against Amrapali, saying the realtor

didn’t honour the contract when he was

endorsing the brand from 2009 to 2016,

and defaulted on paying Rs 40 crore.

Three years ago, he resigned as its brand

ambassador following negative publicity

bouncy

wicket

Supreme

Court turns

spotlight on

firms linked

to Mr and

Mrs dhoni

in amrapali

real estate

default case

Caught In

The Slips

Courtesy: BCCI